Minister of Comm & Tech Inducts 1st Batch of Techlaunchpad Trainees

 The Federal Government, through the Ministry of Communication Technology, has inducted the first batch of the Techlaunchpad initiative.

The ten teams, which were received by the Minister of Communication Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson in Lagos recently, were handed over for one year training at the Lagos incubation centre. Their training will commence July1, 2013.

“We are convinced that collaborating with forward thinking partners, the Techlaunchpad initiative will help Nigerian software enterprises develop enterprise class solutions for our industries and ultimately Africa and the world,” Johnson said, while receiving the team in Lagos.

The Techlaunchpad is an initiative of the Federal Ministry of Communication Technology to build and support a software community capable of producing world class software solutions for all industries and it was inaugurated in December 2012.

It is a collaboration between the Ministry of Communication Technology and the oil and gas and financial services industry partners, aimed at nurturing and developing software entrepreneurs to build successful software companies that will initially provide software solutions for the financial services and the oil and gas industry.

The programme aims to provide mentorship and finance to incubates, creating 10 successful software businesses in the first year that will provide industry solutions for Banks and Oil and Gas by 2014.

The Minister promised that the training exercise would be continuous and that by 2015, subsequent training at the incubation centre would cover other sectors of the economy, with plans to cover 30 businesses that would be capable of creating jobs and wealth in the country. Techlauchpad will also create captive markets for the local software developers. Key partners of the initiative are First Bank, Access Bank, ExxonMobil, Accenture, Digital Jewels, FATE Foundation, Total, and Chevron. - ThisDayLive