The Ondo State Governor, Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Akeredolu on Friday 23rd February, 2018 commissioned the first of its kind Akure Technology Hub at the Federal University of Technology, Akure as part of activities marking the Akeredolu led government one year in office.
The event which had in attendance the wife of the Ondo State Governor, Arabinrin Betty Anyanwu-Akeredolu, the Vice Chancellor of FUTA, Professor Joseph Fuwape, top government functionaries, academia, and drew the attention of small Information Communication and Technology (ICT) start up firms among others.
Addressing the gathering, Mrs. Akeredolu emphasized the importance of technology in building a virile society.
According to her, there is the need to develop ICT with the aim to bridge educational gaps in rural communities.
While expressing her passion for ICT and Solar Technology, Mrs. Akeredolu charged the academic community to develop ICT and begin to work towards deploying it to meet education and learning needs of youths in the core areas.
“In this core area, we don’t have teachers. I believe we can use technology to improve the quality of teaching and learning and deploy it. Lessons in Mathematic and Physic for example can be relayed from this Tech hub to these core areas – that is my dream”, she added.
Earlier in his address, the Special Assistant on ICT, Mr. Olumbe Akinkugbe noted that this was the first time that such a partnership between the government, academia and the private sector will be happening in Africa.
He further expressed hope that the small start ups businesses will leverage on the opportunities being given them through the initiative and promote technology as the Akeredolu led government has promotion of education as well as technology as part of its cardinal programmes.
In his remark, the Vice Chancellor of FUTA, Professor Fuwape also re-affirmed that the initiative is the first of its kind while also expressing optimism that the university community is interested in continous partnership with the state government towards building the frontiers of technology in the state.
Prof. Fuwape who also commended Mrs. Akeredolu thanked her for all her breathtaking efforts at combating breast cancer in the state.
The Convener for the Emerging communities, Joel Ogunsola who is the representative of Tech-Up noted that Akure Tech Hub was introduced to make the state capital one of the most preferred technology frontiers in Africa.
According to him, 82 applications were received, 15 shortlisted and trained after which a pitch was organized to select the most innovative start-up.
The climax of the event was the presentation of a total of $6250 and awards to the winning teams.
