Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodimma, has launched ImoTalentHub.com, a digital talent marketplace in Africa.
The platform connects the state’s rapidly growing ranks of software engineers, data scientists and designers with employers in Lagos, London, Dubai, Silicon Valley and other innovation hubs worldwide.
Anchored in the government’s Skill Up Imo initiative and built in partnership with the University of California, Berkeley, and the U.S. Market Access Centre, the platform wants to place 100,000 Imo-trained technology professionals in paid global roles by 2026.
In a document yesterday, the Skill Up Imo, which was launched in 2022 by the governor, was planned to move the state from an analogue to a fully digital economy and steer young people away from cultism and Internet fraud.
The state disclosed that the initiative has already graduated more than 40,000 learners through intensive courses in software development, Artificial Intelligence (AI), cyber security and user experience design, creating one of Nigeria’s largest and most capable talent pools.
According to the statement, “ImoTalentHub now turns that classroom success into real employment by giving every graduate a verified profile, a portfolio showcase and access to one-click smart contracts that manage KYC checks, escrow payments and tax compliance. A fintech company in Shoreditch can therefore hire a back-end engineer in Owerri as quickly and securely as it might recruit in London, paying in pounds or dollars through fully regulated channels and proving that Imo’s digital youth are ready to compete on the world stage.”
Imo State government revealed that the intellectual power behind the curriculum comes from the Sutardja Centre for Entrepreneurship and Technology at UC Berkeley, saying Berkeley professors have led boot camps on venture funding and ethical AI, helped equip cloud laboratories powered by NVIDIA GPUs at the new Imo Digital City campus and are creating a Founder Development Programme that offers venture-capital access alongside Berkeley certification.
