Where are Hope Uzodimma’s 4000 European jobs?

BY MACDONALD EBERE

When Senator Hope Uzodimma, the Governor of Imo State, promised to link 4000 Imo youths to job opportunities in Europe before his re-election in November 2023, very few people believed him. The video clip went viral as a blunder. Many people (including some national journalists and broadcasters) ridiculed him publicly instead.

Only eight months afterwards, and six months into his second term,Senator Hope Uzodimma has signed a strategic and far-reachingMemorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the EU SME Digital Alliance to offer freelancing, mentoring, and advanced training opportunities in digital skills for Imo youths.

In order not to miss any vital details, please permit me to state some extracts from the announcement of the MoU recently verbatim:

“The Freelancing Programme will allow European companies to access a talent pool of digital professionals from Imo State, while providing these professionals with opportunities for professional development. This initiative seeks to contribute to the socio-economic conditions of local communities in Imo State, and will prioritise making these opportunities available to local female workforce.

The Mentoring Programme will link European businesses with young people in the Imo State, providing them with insights on digital careers and knowledge necessary to succeed in the national and international markets. In this way, the participating businesses will gain an insight into the challenges faced in emerging markets (Africa and Nigeria specifically), facilitating internationalisation opportunities.

Digital skills training is recognised as a means of increasing the quality of life in Imo State by equipping young people with relevant digital skills that can connect them to new job opportunities arising from the global digital economy. To this end, DIGITAL SME will share best practices on upskilling and reskilling young people interested in working in the digital sector, and through a “train the trainer” approach, support the creation of a Digital Skills training hub. The Government of the Imo State will oversee the dissemination of the knowledge acquired from these exchanges through organising local trainings on digital skills.

Additionally, DIGITAL SME and the Imo State Government, Nigeria commit to enhancing each other’s research and innovation capacity through participating in international cooperation projects, and exploring new opportunities for further cooperation in the areas identified in the Africa-EU Partnership, in particular with regard to digital transformation”.

Given the scale, scope, and reach of the EU SME Digital Alliance, thisMoU is obviously an ambitious and audacious agenda. However, it rides on the back of Senator Hope Uzodimma’s commitment to train 300,000 Imo youths on digital skills and the creation of the first Ministry of Digital Economy and E-Government in Nigeria.

So far, the new Ministry of Digital Economy has trained over 20,000 people through its SkillUpImo programme.

Coincidentally, the digital economy is a top priority identified by the Imo Industrial Policy developed by the Office of the Chief Economic Adviser in partnership with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization.

Unemployment, especially among young people, has become a social-warming problem in Africa. As such, the realisation of this MoU between the Imo State Government and the EU SME Digital Alliance clearly demonstrates Senator Hope Uzodimma’s ability to walk the talk. It also reflects the governor’s commitment to impactful people-oriented projects and job creation in an era where unwarranted exaggerations are the norm in political circles.

With the MoU in place, the Imo State Government has automatically created enormous opportunities for freelancers and different entrepreneurs. Even if ten per cent of the EU SME Alliance membership of 45,000 decide to offer an outsourced job each, that’s already 4,500 jobs, which exceeds the number the governor promised back in November 2023. In turn, these jobs will need workstations and other ancillary services. 

The workstations will offer spaces for freelancers to work remotely for international brands and organisations. However, they need to be equipped with the necessary amenities such as power, water, recreational facilities, et cetera.

Imo State already has a significant number of hotels. The State can boast of being the hospitality capital of the South-East of Nigeria.

The need for workstations will create extra opportunities for some actors in the hospitality sector to maximise their occupancy rate. It is possible that some hotels will convert some of their unused or less used spaces to workstations and cater for a new set of clients and customers.

With developments in the digital space and growing investments in digital infrastructure and skills, it will not be a surprise if Imo State emerges as a super digital hub in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Imo State, as a super digital hub, will create extra opportunities for lawyers, intellectual property experts, accountants, and other service providers. This will reinforce Imo State as a service-based economy, which is the title of the latest edition of the Imo Economic Digest – a quarterly magazine published by the Office of the Chief Economic Adviser to the Imo State Government.

In sum, Senator Hope Uzodimma, the Governor of Imo State, needs to be applauded and encouraged for exceeding the expectations of his critiques in relation to his commitment to digital skills development and opportunity creation.

Now that opportunities have been created through the MoU, it is the responsibility of entrepreneurs and the private sector at large to creatively and impactfully exploit them.

The MoU with the EU SME Digital Alliance is a prominent milestone. It is a journey from 4000 European jobs to 45,000 European firms with massive economic empowerment opportunities. The fruits of the MoU will indeed reposition Imo on the global map.

MacDonald Ebere, PhD, an expert in practical political philosophy, writes from Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria.