Addis Ababa: The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has expressed interest in expanding support to develop the young people’s IT skills in Ethiopia.
In an exclusive interview with ENA, Chief Representative of the JICA to Ethiopia, Kensuke Oshima said the agency has been cooperating with Ethiopia for 50 years in multifaceted spheres
Ethiopia has a huge number of population, where the majority of the people are young, he said, adding ‘I think there no doubt that Ethiopia has a big opportunity for economic growth in the future.’
Thus, the representative said that the country is trying to transform the economy by focusing on business digital transformation that needs support.
‘I understand that digital transformation can advance the economy of this country,’ he added.
However, IT infrastructure facilities across the country are limited, while the people in urban areas can enjoy the smartphones, the people in the rural areas still may not have the access, he noted.
Therefore, he stressed that expa
nding IT infrastructure services for the people in rural areas and developing the know-how of the people who already use IT are needed for further development.
Now, the Ethiopian government is inviting foreign investors to the country, such as Safaricom and other industries he said, adding that in this regard addressing technical constraints facing Ethiopian technicians in the industry is critical.
He underlined ‘we have to support the development of young people’s IT skills in this country.’
To this effect, he recalled that JICA and the Ministry of Innovation and Technology, Sumitomo Corporation and Safaricom Ethiopia signed MoU for developing IT knowledge and technology.
The primary objective of this MoU is to establish joint working groups to the realization of the Ethiopian government’s program, Digital Ethiopia 2025 and accelerate the development of innovative solutions through effective utilization of digital technologies, he said.
He mentioned that JICA graduated 50 young IT technicians and it is
working to expand the program.
JICA is trying to provide IT training to 10,000 young people in Ethiopia in collaboration with other partners, he said.
On other hand, he added that JICA will support startups in Ethiopia.
Supporting startups in Ethiopia is still a new area for JICA, he said, adding it launched the Project NINJA (Next Innovation with Japan) in January 2020, which works in multifaceted support for entrepreneurs who take on the challenge of solving social issues in Africa, he said.
‘Here in Ethiopia, we have the center operation because it needs to be innovative technology and we are supporting a logic analytic creation program and the funding of a much improved program for the startupers in Ethiopia. We are still continuing such a program,’ he added.
Noting a startup can be a game changer of technologies, he said, adding ‘I think it will be a big opportunity for economic development in Ethiopia.’
Source: Ethiopian News Agency