Flowdiary: A Mega Project to Reduce Joblessness in Nigeria

 

We are working on a mega project to reduce joblessness in Nigeria, primarily the northern region, by teaching the core knowledge, adoption and implementation of digital skills among youths for self-reliance at our digital learning platform, Flowdiary.

This eLearning platform is an EdTech startup that teaches digital skills in Hausa language for reliance. It's a huge task hardly to be accomplished by a small group of people, it needs cooperation from different aspects to achieve the goal of empowering youths through digital skills.

Being in the world of tech for almost a decade, and because I have a passion and zeal for helping my fellow youngsters with the little I have through training, mentorship, and support, I have tried to cover these in less than 3 years: 

1. In September 2019, I authored a 110-page eBook called eBillions Mastery which talks about the legitimate ways to earn money on the internet by adopting some lucrative digital skills and gave it for free to my fellow youths
2. In earlier 2020, I presented a research paper at Federal University Gashua titled, "The Role of Information Technology in Eradicating Poverty in Yobe State" and highlighted the simple ways to reduce poverty among youths in my dear state, Yobe, by adopting digital skills 
3. In late 2020, I wrote an article titled "Information Technology as the Best Entrepreneurship Idea to Empower Youths and Create Jobs in Yobe State" for a competition initiated by Yobe State Scholarships Board, where I pinpointed some digital skills as the best way to empower youths. The article was published by YSSB and was included in its Compendium of Selected Essays, 2021 Edition
4. In August 2020, we started a motive movement called #ZoMuGinaKamfani on social media to motivate our fellow youths to have the courage of starting small-scale businesses for self-reliance. Hence, I wrote a 106-page eBook with the same title for guidance on the same mission — building startups and lifting small businesses.
5. In April 2022, we founded Flowdiary, an EdTech startup that trains digital skills in Hausa language for better comprehension, as our main mission is always self-reliance.

Starting this startup about 7-months ago, we trained a total of 270 youths in different digital skills, and today we are orientating 203 students under our third batch who come to learn these skills to reply on their own.

In a country of about 200 million people where a high percentage of its graduates are unemployed ranging from ND, NCE, BSc and MSc holders, it is undoubtedly every part has to play its role to reduce this joblessness that threatens its peace and national development. 

Last month, the Yobe State Ministry of Empowerment and Wealth Creation released an enrolment link for recruiting ad-hoc staff for the enumeration of businesses across the 17 LGAs of the state, where over 11 thousand applicants were recorded. The Honourable Commissioner of the Ministry, Hon. Abdullah Bego said only 367 applicants were selected among the thousands and shows his grief over the number of jobless graduates in the state who own ND, NCE, BSc and MSc certificates among the applicants.

This is Yobe alone, what of the remaining regions? 

So, when we realized the benefits of digital skills in national development, we started working tirelessly to try our part in the development of our fatherland. In this struggle, we arrive at the stage of founding Flowdiary where we focus on three things: (i) teach digital skills, (ii) in Hausa language, (iii) for self-reliance.

Our video lectures are well-preferred and will be understood even by a layman, for the simplicity of the teaching language, examples given, and the methodology used. We have a team of 10 members who work day and night to fulfil the promises we have taken and teach 18 different courses where less than N2,500 is charged for each course. 

We have also recorded over a dozen of achievements from our students who have implemented the skills they learned and are now depending on their own. This means we are helping the government to contribute to national development, because we are taking some steps forward to reduce joblessness among youths, and will continue doing it as long as we can breathe.

 

So help us God, amen.

Muhammad Auwal Ahmad,

CEO, Flowdiary

 

10th October 2022.