By Engr. Mustapha Habu
The Director-General, NITDA, Malam Kashifu Inuwa, paid an assessment visit to Engausa Global Tech. Hub to assess the level of development achieved by the Hub and the impacts of its initiatives after it emerged as a beneficiary of a grant from NITDA last year.
ENGAUSA had been able to train 313 young people within two years (2019-2020). However, after winning the grant, the number surges dramatically. Today ENGAUSA has successfully trained 800 young people in 2021. The NITDA, in conjunction with ENGAUSA, will therefore conduct an end-of-training event in January 2022.
Before the end-of-the-year break commenced, Malam Kashifu assessed the expertise of 50 primary and secondary school kids, who were trained under a theme titled ENGAUSA CARCH THEM YOUNG.
ENGAUSA presented to the DG what was being invented by young people and Almajiris at ENGAUSA HUB. He was also happy and surprised how they make inventions without having gone to higher schools—as some of them are dropouts with expertise in drawing and innovation of the modern time.
Others on SIWES from various universities and those that have not got the opportunity to further their education are already into robotics and the Internet of Things (IoT).
The Hub introduced other graduates out of the 60 who established their firms after getting trained at ENGAUSA Hub. The firms include THE D E-SERVICES, DASHERE ELECTRIC SERVICES, SD GLOBAL TECHNOLOGIES, and so on.
An outstanding mentee who invented a mathematics learning app called HausaMaths was also introduced to the DG. Another one also built a science and technology teaching app in the Hausa language called Bemitela.Africa.
The DG also met some young people employed by companies in Kano and Abuja, namely JETSON ENGINEERING (that deploys them to COSGROVE estate sites in Abuja), CHOSEN ONE GLOBAL TECH LTD, which has sites in Abuja, Kano, Kaduna, and other states in the northern part of the country.
ENGAUSA HUB presented some 10 Almajiris enrolled for the ENGAUSA CATCH THEM YOUNG and have followed the footsteps of the rest in areas of graphic design and innovation. One of the Almajiris has even been employed by ENGAUSA HUB for his outstanding performance. Alhaji Yahaya Yusuf Kwande (who is not from Kano) is the one who sponsored the registration of the Kano Almajiris.
The able DG of NITDA assured ENGAUSA HUB that his agency would collaborate with the Hub in promoting such developmental projects across the states in Nigeria.
As of the time of writing this, ENGAUSA is part of the Technology Incubation Center (of NBTI) established to work under the custody of the Federal Ministry of Science Technology and Innovation. We also have a branch on Rijiyar Zaki Gwarzo Road and other cities that we plan to collaborate with within Jigawa, Kaduna, and Abuja to enhance modern skills and ease learning initiatives.
Our door is open for anyone willing to collaborate with us in making this a reality.