Dr. Moininah David Sengeh, Chief Innovation Officer at the Office of the President has officially launched Africell’s Coding Booth camp at the Africell American Corner, Bathurst Street, Freetown.
The exercise aims at training Secondary School pupils with computation culminating into skills that will lead them to development of computer applications and Tech-Starts with the view to solve complex problems relating to Health, Traffic, and EnvironmentalManagement etc.
Making an address at the ceremony, Dr.Sengeh urged the children attending the Coding Booth Camp who are between the ages of 9 to 25 years approximately to consider themselves as leaders even when they engage in coding or at home.
He reiterated the fact that, coding language does not taken into consideration age,class or social restrictions and emphasized that, coding is about the alignment of thought processes and skills.
The Chief Innovation Officer pointed out that, computation is critical to Sierra Leone Development and the overall boosting of the economy.
Coding skills according to him could be used to solve skills around issues such as health care, theenvironment, traffic and other related issues.
The CIO told the Secondary Schools attending the camp that job demands in the last century differs from the ones of the current century and this is the more reason why coding skills are very integral to meeting the job demand of today’s generation.
Head of Corporate Strategy at Africell, Mr. Joe Abass Bangura in his remarks cited the recently concluded Telecommunications Conference in Freetown and noted that the emphasis of such a conference was to build on a digital economy for Sierra Leone.
Africell, Mr. Bangura pointed out is already leading towards this direction by building a highly responsive educational system which according to him is integral in the building of the digital economy.
The Corporate Officer maintained that Africell Booth Camp Coding is intended to build the new set of leaders that will propel Sierra Leone’s technological innovation.
Mr. Joe Abass Bangura recounted that the Africell American Corner has always being a hub for the training of young people and that since its establishment in 2013 the center has hosted 13,00 events and over 62,000 have visited the center.
He lauded the Chief Innovation Officer at the Office of President for making to the event and praised his contribution to the development of an innovative economy.
John Conteh, Manager AfriRadio and Print Cordinator Africell explained the rationale for the booth coding camp and disclosed that the company is targeting 120 secondary pupils.
He boasted that they at Africell are not interested in formulating policies but bent on putting them into practical terms .
Mr. John Conteh noted that, they are off with the training of new leaders that will lead Sierra Leone’s technological development trajectory.
The booth coding camp will last for the next one week and pupils are expected to inculcate skills that will enable them to create Tech-Starts and applications to be able to solve emerging and complex problems facing the continent and Sierra Leone at large.
Mark from Greek Express the firm that provided the training noted that they at Greek express are working with Africell to realize Government drive to digitalize the economy.
He maintained that it is their hope that the training provided to the Children will them to learn to develop applications that will result in solving mankind problems.
Dr. David Sengeh Launches Africell’s Coding Booth Camp
