The Lagos State Government on Tuesday unveiled plans to set up 500 Coding Centres in public and private schools across the State ahead of the launch of the CodeLagos Initiative in April, 2017.

The CodeLagos project is an initiative of the State Government targeted at equipping at least one million Lagosians with the skills of computer programming aimed at making the State the technology frontier in Africa.

Addressing a news conference in Alausa on Tuesday, Special Adviser to Governor Akinwunmi Ambode on Education, Mr. Obafela Bank-Olemoh said the target of government is to set up 500 coding centres in schools, public libraries and community centres across the State in the course of the year.

He said modalities are already in place to set up 300 centres by April in partnership with private organisations, adding that an agreement has been concluded with one of the leading financial service providers in the country, ARM. .

According to Bank-Olemoh, “ARM will be setting up 15 centres and these centres will be established in Low Income Schools in line with His Excellency, Governor Akinwumi Ambode’s commitment to promoting inclusive governance and qualitative education for all citizens.

“This, we intend to achieve by providing equal access to knowledge for all Lagosians regardless of their socio-economic status and location.” Bank-Olemoh said the partnership with ARM demonstrates the commitment of Governor Ambode’s administration to equip citizens with the necessary skills to create sustainable solutions to the challenges confronting the State.

In her remarks, Managing Director of ARM, Jumoke Ogundare said the organization was excited about the partnership with Lagos State on the CodeLagos initiative, saying that the project was in line with the commitment of the firm to improve continued access to education for all.

It will be recalled that the registration and screening of facilitators for CodeLagos started last week and is ongoing. At the end of the process, 1,500 facilitators would be selected and deployed to centres across the State.