Technology giant, Microsoft said it has partnered with two frontline shoemaking firms to train unemployed Nigerian youths on the skills required to become successful shoe makers.
The company hinted that the partnership, which it’s embarking on through its Citizenship Program, is with Italian shoe designer, Scali shoes, and Nigerian shoe-making outfit, Shoespeed.
The partnership, Microsoft enthused, is geared towards ameliorating the chronic unemployment problems in the country, which has seen over 50 percent of Nigeria’s youths jobless.
According to tech blog TechCity, Microsoft and Shoespeed will produce a video tutorial of a shoe making exercise which will be uploaded to Microsoft’s Aiki portal for a month. Candidates who are best able to produce a prototype of the shoe made in the video will be considered for the training.
“Earlier this year, McKinsey and Co estimated youth unemployment in Nigeria at around 50 percent. Our vision at Microsoft Citizenship is to scale the impact of the work that we do around youth and employment – by creating over 100,000 jobs over the next 2 to 3 years,” Olusola Amusan, who’s the Corporate Citizenship Lead at Microsoft Nigeria, said of the reason behind the initiative.