Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a former minister of finance in Nigeria and director in the board of Twitter, Inc, has urged youth in the country to use the twitter social media platform as initiative to create jobs and end unemployment.
Okojo-Iweala stated this on Monday during the interactive session of the African University of Science and Technology (AUST) with the Chief Executive officer of Twitter, Jack Patric Dorsey.
Dorsey was in Nigeria and visited Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory to identify the science and technology problems of the country and proffer solutions.
Specifically, the twitter CEO was in the country to discover entrepreneurship talents and to harness them in order to set Nigeria and Africa on the pedestal of world innovative solutions.
Okonjo-Iweala who is also chairman of the Board of Trustees of AUST, said apart from using twitter as media platform for socialisation, youths can devise it to gain self employment and extend the engagement to other jobless persons.
She said by creating jobs through twitter, youth can engage in entrepreneurship by setting up bussineses using the platform and in order to address gender, social justice among other issues.
“Nigeria has one of the most dynamic young entrepreneurs in Africa and today, the CEO of twitter is in Nigeria for the first time in Africa. Apart from using this platform for socialization, I urge young people to use it to create jobs for themselves and for others.
“Jack is interested in entrepreneurship and not just using twitter as a platform to create jobs. We have example of young Nigerians who have platforms in which they go from village to village providing things that the people cannot get from government.
“That is why we wanted him to come to Nigeria so he can do things for the youth. Apart from creating jobs, Twitter can be used to address social problems, gender and social justice issues,” Okonjo-Iweala said.
Meanwhile, the twitter CEO, Dorsey, has explained that he is in the country to interact with young entrepreneurs, learn from them and reason how science and technology will be driven in the country.
“I am in Nigeria to learn from young entrepreneurs and twitter users to understand the problems they are facing in the country and proffer solutions on African innovations and technology,” he stated.
