Technology executive Akparawa (Engr.) Emmanuel Edet Willie marked his 50th birthday in Lagos on Saturday by launching a foundation aimed at giving selected young people from Akwa Ibom access to free professional skills training.
The Akp. Engr. E. Willie Foundation (AEEWF) was unveiled during Willie’s Golden Jubilee celebration at Darlington Hall, Ilupeju, on 26 September.
The Foundation plans to begin with two training tracks — networking certification and alternative-energy installation — with the first cohort expected to include 50 selected beneficiaries.
Willie said the initiative was driven by his desire to create opportunities for young people who have the ability to succeed but lack access to professional training.
“What do you do with all that you have been given?”
He said that question eventually led him to establish the Foundation.
“You go back. You go back for the ones who are standing where you once stood.”
From career success to creating opportunities
Willie said his more than two decades in telecommunications and technology had exposed him to the role digital skills can play in economic development.
He said he had worked with organisations including Teledom Group, Globacom, Etisalat and Cisco Systems.
“I have seen what technology does to economies. I have watched digital transformation change the fortunes of nations.”
The Foundation’s initial focus will be on young people from Akwa Ibom, particularly those described by Willie as indigent residents of the state.
Its stated aim is to provide training, certification support and practical exposure without charging selected beneficiaries.
“This Foundation exists for one purpose only: to take young people from Akwa Ibom State — brilliant, talented, hungry young people who simply need someone to show them the door — to train and equip them with world-class digital skills and globally recognised professional certifications, completely free of charge.”
50 candidates targeted for first programme
The first major programme is expected to focus on Cisco Certified Network Associate, or CCNA, training.
Willie said the programme would combine online theoretical lessons with practical training at a facility in Akwa Ibom.
He said he had donated a building to the Ibesikpo/Asutan Secretariat in his hometown, which would be used for practical sessions after necessary furnishing is completed.
The Foundation says candidates will register online before going through a selection process.
Willie said the Foundation had been trying to attract enough eligible applicants and that he wanted to select people who could complete the demanding training.
“I want to graduate 50 who has the energy, who have the strength, who have the discipline and the tenacity to go through the rigour of a professional exam.”
The CCNA certification is a Cisco qualification covering areas including networking fundamentals, network access, IP connectivity, security fundamentals, automation and programmability.
Cisco says candidates can earn the certification by passing its 200-301 CCNA examination.
The Foundation’s programme, however, should not be presented as a guaranteed route to employment. Certification can provide a recognised professional credential, but job outcomes will also depend on candidates’ experience, broader skills and the labour market.
Alternative energy training
The Foundation also plans to train young people in alternative-energy installation.
The programme is expected to cover solar-panel design and sizing, inverter installation and configuration, battery storage and management, fault diagnosis, maintenance and safety.
The choice of the two areas reflects the Foundation’s stated interest in practical skills that can connect young people to technology and emerging economic opportunities.
The organisation says its broader mandate is to train, certify, equip and deploy young people into the global digital economy.
‘The gap between potential and placement’
Willie said the Foundation was created to address what he described as a gap between the potential of young people and their access to opportunities.
“That gap between potential and placement, between talent and opportunity, is what this Foundation has been built to close.”
The challenge is broader than one Foundation.
Nigeria continues to face significant gaps in digital skills and employment opportunities, particularly as technology changes the nature of work and the skills demanded by employers.
The World Bank has identified digital skills development and stronger links between training and labour-market opportunities as important to Nigeria’s participation in the digital economy.
For the Foundation, the key test will therefore extend beyond the launch.
Its impact will depend on how many candidates are admitted, how many complete the training, how many obtain relevant certifications and whether graduates eventually secure employment, create businesses or apply their skills in their communities.
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‘True success is not what you accumulate’
Willie said he wanted the Foundation to become a long-term human-capital development project rather than a one-off birthday initiative.
He said the experience and opportunities he had received during his career created a responsibility to help others.
“True success is not what you accumulate. It is the generation you lift after you.”
He said the initial target of 50 beneficiaries was deliberately modest compared with the longer-term ambition.
“Because just as one seed sown into one young man thirty years ago has produced fifty today, I believe that fifty, properly equipped and deployed, will produce five hundred. And five hundred will produce five thousand.”
That projection remains an aspiration rather than an established outcome.
Whether the Foundation can achieve such wider effects will depend on sustained funding, transparent selection, training quality, certification outcomes and the ability of graduates to convert their new skills into livelihoods and further opportunities.
A celebration centred on purpose
The Foundation’s launch formed the main public-interest element of Willie’s Golden Jubilee celebration, which was held under the theme “Celebrating Life, Grace and God’s Faithfulness.”
In a keynote address, Mr Ifiok Okon Udoh, who said he had known Willie for decades, described the Foundation’s focus on ICT as important given the changing nature of work.
“You are coming into an area that we are lacking in our country. To introduce ICT, a new digital economy that rules the world today.”
Udoh said providing young people with technology skills could help prepare them for a changing business environment.
Dr Basil Ibeh of Living Saints Global Ministries, who delivered the exhortation, focused on the broader themes of purpose, service and responsibility.
He urged people to consider how their lives could contribute to their communities and future generations.
A goodwill message attributed to Akparawa James Edet, Permanent Secretary at the Akwa Ibom State Ministry of Information and immediate past international president of Mboho Mkparawa Ibibio, also highlighted Willie’s previous community interventions.
The leadership of Mboho Mkparawa Ibibio separately congratulated Willie and described his contributions to community and human development as worthy of recognition.
What happens next?
The Foundation says recruitment and selection will precede the commencement of its first training programme, which Willie indicated is expected to begin in January.
The immediate challenge is to move from the launch ceremony to implementation.
That means identifying the promised 50 beneficiaries, completing the practical training facility, delivering the courses and supporting participants through the relevant certification process.
For the young people targeted by the initiative, the value of the Foundation will ultimately be measured not by the birthday celebration at which it was launched, but by what its beneficiaries are able to do with the skills they acquire.
For Willie, however, the launch represents the beginning of what he described as his most important work after five decades of life and more than two decades in the technology industry.
“This Foundation is my life’s most important work. And it has only just begun.”
