Ekeh while chatting in a recent
interview with Cable News Network (CNN) noted that with the right kind of
investment in technological platforms and the overwhelming support of the
government in providing the requisite enabling environment, Nigeria could effortlessly
produce global billionaires.
Serial digital entrepreneur, Ekeh
who has built arguably Africa’s most integrated ICT conglomerate – the Zinox
Group – is confident that with significant investment in ICT, the challenge of
youth unemployment, inadequate opportunities and growing restiveness among the
youth can be arrested. For this to happen, he posited that the government has to
actively engage the youths by investing massively in ICT which, in his opinion,
has become the fancy of young people.
Ekeh is a firm believer in the
numerous opportunities which abound in the rapidly evolving ICT-driven future –
a knowledge economy in which wealth is no longer the exclusive preserve of a
privileged few.
“The miracle of ICT is that it is
the only profession in the world today that can make the child of a poor man
the richest man in the world. The challenge, however, is that majority of our
youths are in a closed community in which the standards are still poor so they cannot
exhibit their innate intellectual strength. As a result, they are seen as
defeated and a lot of them are unemployed.
“We are doing our bit to correct
this situation but government support will go a long way in helping the country
achieve more. Presently, Zinox is building digital training centres and tech
hubs across the country and empowering many of our youths. We have also
committed some significant investment in a number of tech start-ups. Recently,
we invested in an Ibadan-based software company – Xputer. Interestingly, some
of the apps being created by the young chaps Xputer are driving the business
processes of the major e-commerce outfits in the country. All they needed was a
bit of exposure and support to help them scale up.
“The same situation applies to
many of our youth. Today, if you give these youths the right platforms, which I
must say is not expensive, Nigeria can produce a minimum of 10 billionaires
from the ICT sector in the next few years.”
"Ninety percent of youths
today want to go into trending professions; lifestyle professions and that is
what ICT really is. If government invests in this sector as it should, Nigeria
is capable of producing several billionaires straight out of the technology
space", he said.
Ekeh is the founder and Chairman
of the Zinox Group, a technology company based in Nigeria that manufactures and
distributes computers at home and abroad. Zinox employs 1,800 Nigerians and
Ekeh thinks the company can play a role in improving the tech economy, while
tapping into Nigeria's young population.
Among his many tech ventures,
Ekeh pioneered Zinox Computers, Nigeria's first internationally certified and most
popular indigenous computer brand which has powered several international
conferences including the African Union conference in Gambia and the 18th
Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) which held in Abuja in 2003, in
addition to being severally deployed by the Independent National Electoral
Commission (INEC) in the registration and successful conduct of elections in
Nigeria.
“We came with a computer with an
in-built surge protector in line with the peculiar power challenges in Nigeria.
At Zinox, we are closest to the people with 14 offices nationwide. Zinox has
sold in every local government and town in the country today and the call
centre is 24 hours. It’s a brand for Nigeria – global standard but specific to
Nigeria,” he noted.
Ekeh ranks as one of Africa's
most passionate digital entrepreneurs and he has staked this reputation by
pioneering several successful technology start-ups and taking them to the zenith
of marketplace competition. A first rate Indian-trained economist and Risk
Manager, he was honoured as an ICON of Hope by former President Olusegun
Obasanjo on October 1st 2002 for his sustained pioneering effort in
the area of Information technology and also as a pride to modern Nigeria.
Chuks Egbune/GEE
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