Nigeria’s Vice President Yemi Osinbajo joined Edo State Governor Godwin Obaseki last month to kick off the construction of the Edo Tech Park (ETP).
The park, a mini-city for software engineers, is being developed in Benin by Decagon, who are Africa’s leading source of world-class software engineers.
Designed to be an exciting live, work and play project with a first phase that spans over 20,000 square metres, the Park will provide state-of-the-art infrastructure including high-speed internet via fibre-optic connectivity provided by MainOne in collaboration with Facebook.
The park will also have co-working spaces, good road connections, uninterrupted electricity, and a great support system for techies.
“What Decagon and the state are doing is 100 percent aligned with our vision to create more opportunities for Nigerian youths. It complements the work we are doing with African Development Bank in setting up the i-DICE fund to invest in Digital and Creative Enterprises,” Osinbajo said.
Similarly, Obaseki noted that the park will improve foreign exchange inflow, to help the Naira, and to also solve the problem of youth unemployment.
“This would also lead to more startups springing up, which will create exponential effects in terms of job creation in Edo State,” the governor said.
The park is being developed in partnership with the Edo State Government, through its employment initiative – EdoJobs. With its promise of convenience, serenity, and collaboration, the park will boost business activities in the state, while providing the perfect environment for tech talent productivity and technological innovation.
It will also be a major catalyst for accelerating the inflow of strategic local and foreign investments.
“In the next five years, the park will host 15,000 software engineers, mostly graduates of Decagon’s acclaimed software engineering and leadership training program who we retain to work for companies in the USA and Europe from Benin City,” said Chika Nwobi, founder of Decagon.
Decagon has already trained and graduated over 550 software engineers now working for international companies like Indeed (Austin, Texas), Tribl (Atlanta) and Return Queen (New York), as well as Nigerian companies like Sterling, Carbon, Kobo360, RenMoney, MaxNG, and many others
