The partnership between the Edo State Government and Decagon, an elite software engineering and leadership training institute, on the Edo Tech Park, will provide needed capacity to transform the state’s burgeoning technology ecosystem and address illegal migration and human trafficking while providing employment for youths in the state.
Director, Strategic Partnership, Decagon, Mr. George Imoedemhe, who disclosed this in a chat with journalists, said the state government conceptualized the idea of the park and invited Decagon, which has a track record of providing bespoke training for software engineers, to drive the project.
He added that the government is determined to tackle illegal migration by providing youth with an opportunity to acquire world-class skills in the state and work remotely from Benin for global clients and get paid in foreign currencies.
According to him, “The state government’s choice of Decagon is to drive execution speed by leveraging the experience and expertise of a team already focused on profitably solving this problem and also to ensure sustainability is baked into this initiative allowing it to remain impactful across successive government administrations.”
He added that the Decagon team have proven requisite experience, having played pivotal roles in building the rails for the Nigerian tech ecosystem, adding “Decagon is a merit-based training program producing world class software engineers and connecting them with jobs in leading companies. They have a 100% placement rate and less than 60 days lead time from graduation to job placement.”
On the structure of the park, he said it will be fitted with live-work apartments, training facilities, 24/7 power supply and reliable high-speed internet, adding that it is expected to train 15,000 developers across different stacks in 5 years, who will be placed with various local and international clients through its private partner.
