Microsoft Nigeria in partnership with the Future Project and The Zariah Elizabeth Foundation (TZE Foundation) is set to empower 6000 public school students in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory of Nigeria with basic skills in Kodu, Minecraft, HTML and CSS.
The initiative which is part of a larger campaign to get #1MillionFingersCoding has been dubbed Code2Create and intends to train 600 students in 10 schools across the Federal Capital Territory.
According to the TZE Foundation, training of the students will last for 10 days, and further training will be provided for teachers of each school at the foundation’s HUB and through the Microsoft Youthworks portal Aiki Nigeria.
Through its partnership with Microsoft, the foundation plans to introduce students to the world of ‘coding’ at an early stage and start a code club in the schools with support from Partners
“We believe that learning programming skills will benefit children in other ways whatever their ultimate career – almost akin to the reasoning for giving children the chance to learn a musical instrument or foreign language”, Akindayo Akindolani TZE Foundation Executive Director disclosed.
Akindayo added, one of our major objective is towards building the next set of developers that will eventually emerged as the next Bill Gate, Mark Zuckerberg that Nigeria and Africa will be proud of.
In his words the Citizenship Manager, Microsoft Nigeria Olusola Amusan Said, ” At Microsoft, we believe if we can inspire, enable and provide a conducive environment through digital literacy and coding skills, we are securing the nation’s future. “
Amusan added that the ‘Code2Create’ initiative is part of the #1millionFingersCoding campaign of Microsoft and will empower 6000 youths in the FCT among which there might be the leaders of tomorrow’s technology empires; 0adding to GDP and providing limitless opportunities.”
The initiative which is in line with the Federal Government’s need for diversification of Nigeria’s economy, intends to introduce young students to the IT world at an early age to enable them positively boost the country’s image in the ICT sector.
The flag off programme is scheduled to hold on Monday 16th May 2016, 9am at Federal Government Boys College, Apo before Gudu Market. The programme will have in attendance, FME, Ministry of Communication and NITDA with Microsoft and The Future Project as the sponsors of the Project.