SING FOUNDATION SET TO LAUNCH ITS FLAGSHIP CODE 3 PROJECT: TO SKILL UP OVER 15THOUSAND CHILDREN IN TECHNOLOGY RELATED FIELDS

The Niger Delta has come to be defined by her oil resources and the struggle for a greater share of same, while her richly diverse ecosystem is progressively degraded and her people are left uneducated and poor. Oil however is diminishing in influence and value globally, following the push for more renewables and the discovery of shale oil, which puts the future of the region in jeopardy without an urgent intervention.
SING was founded by King A. J. Turner, a businessman, philanthropist and the paramount ruler of Opume Kingdom in Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa state. The Foundation was created to give a formal structure to the philanthropic works of the founder who, out of his belief that the human capital is the most important resource for national development, had given scholarships to over 2000 children of his locality as well as building an ICT center and a basic education center.
Taking into cognizance the fact that the jobs of the future are going to be more knowledge and ICT based, we must begin to equip the future adults with the right skills and knowledge to be major players therein. The “Code 3 Project”, is the foundation’s intervention towards preparing the children of the Niger Delta to be key players in the emerging fast changing global economic landscape.
The project is comprised of 3 components which are: Learn, Innovate and Impact. The project will drive the learning of new skills, which will enable the learners to innovate and impact their communities with the solutions they will create. Furthermore the project will push for modification of educational policies that shift the center of gravity in education towards learning of relevant skills for the 21st century and development of the natural talents of the individual learner.
The Code 3 project, which will be launched in May, 2019, will commence with a pilot phase of ICT training, which will expose children in rural communities to programming and mobile applications creation to make them creators of solutions to the challenges of their local communities. It is intended that, through the partnership model that SING will be adopting, about 15thousand children in the remotest villages of the Niger Delta region will be given the right tools and platforms to fulfil their potentials and compete on an even footing with their urban peers.
The project will, in the medium to long-term, create a pool of skilled youth, who clearly see a viable future away from the militancy and other violent crimes that have come to be accepted as the quickest route to success in the Niger Delta. In an emerging world system in which oil plays a less influential role, we must begin to ensure that our youth are equipped to be productively and sustainably engaged, and there is no better way to do this than through ICT education.

Signedx

Executive Director

SING NIGERIA

IDRIS-ETANAMI USMAN