With the mandate to build Nigeria’s premier digital economy hub in the South-East, Imo Digital City Limited (IDCL) is using its over 65,000 graduates in 14 digital hubs to attract investors to the state.

The city, which would generate over $50 million yearly at maturity, targets 10,000 jobs with its focus on economic development and youth employment in Imo state.

According to Imo Commissioner for Digital Economy and E-Government, Dr Chimezie Amadi, IDCL is a digital economy infrastructure built to solve a structural problem that no isolated intervention has been able to crack: the gap between Nigeria’s extraordinary youth population and the formal as well as digital employment and enterprise it should be generating.

He added: “IDCL is not a pilot programme in search of validation; it is a fully operational ecosystem already delivering measurable results and now positioned for scale. Over 65,000 young Imo residents have been trained and equipped with in-demand Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) skills and start-up kits through the SkillUpImo initiative.

MyImoApp, The Guardian gathered, proves that IDCL can build, ship and operate a consumer-facing platform at scale; a capability most digital-economy programmes promise and very few deliver.

“It also creates direct downstream economic activity for riders, restaurants, small businesses and government that the rest of the ecosystem continues to feed and benefit from. The platform is a distribution asset with compounding returns,” Amadi stated.

According to him, each of the 14 hubs is a standalone revenue-generating facility with its own income streams, employment contribution, and strategic role within the wider ecosystem.

Profiles are reportedly organised by function: revenue-generating front-line hubs first, followed by manufacturing anchors, then specialisation and enterprise hubs.

They include the Call Centre, SKD Assembly Hub, Tech Incubation Hub, Robotics Hub, AI Training Centre, Clean Tech Hub, and Drone Lab.

Others are the Entrepreneurship Centre and Founder Dojo, Digital Printing Press, Automobile Centre, CNG Conversion and EV Charging Centre, SkillUpImo, Operations Hub and Imo Identity Project.

The commissioner noted that no investor, with all the hubs, would visit Imo and would not be hooked. Hence, he called on investors to give IDCL a try and live with the testimony.

He said: “IDCL welcomes investors whose capital and capabilities are aligned with building the digital economy of Imo State at scale. We are open to a range of engagement structures; equity stakes in individual hubs, programme co-investment, debt facilities for infrastructure and impact fund participation.”