Information & Communication Technology Arena

TWO pupils of Doregos Private Academy, Lagos, Davidson Osaremen, 12, and Alade Oluwaseun, 13, have graduated as two of the best students in this year‘s Microsoft Certified Professionals examinations.

With their performance, the two, according to Microsoft and New Horizons, have become Africa‘s youngest pupils to obtain the Microsoft CP certificate.

Microsoft had partnered New Horizons to develop local innovation by empowering Nigerian youths.

The partnership‘s goal is to drive creativity amongst Nigerian youths, and help them reach their full potential, so that at any age they can compete with their peers across the world.

According to the Managing Director, New Horizons, Mr. Tim Akano, the two pupils had partnered with Rilwan Shittu about three years ago to set up a company called DASH. ”The two youngsters, nine and 10 at the time, assembled their own computer within 15 minutes in December 2006,” Akano told the gathering, where the two IT whiz kids were honoured at an elaborate ceremony on Wednesday in Lagos.

He added that it was therefore not difficult for the two to excel in the MCP examinations after their school partnered with his firm to participate in the exams.


”This achievement by Davidson and Alade is sure proof that Nigeria has the talent to compete against the best IT professionals in the world if they are given the right training and support. Once we identified that these teenagers had a strong flair for technology we made the commitment to nurture them to this point where they have now emerged as Nigeria‘s youngest IT professionals,” he added.

He commended the academy for adopting technology education as a core part of its curriculum. Doregos, the first school to embrace the ICT Partnership programme with New Horizons, has garnered several awards, including the Best ICT Students award in Lagos State. The school also represented Nigeria in Brazil for the International Science EXPO, where Nigeria won five medals and two trophies.

According to him, this century is the ICT century, hence his organisation‘s commitment to supporting and actively driving programmes aimed at ensuring that Nigeria is relevant in the ICT revolution.

The Country Manager of Microsoft, Mr. Emmanuel Onyeje, noted that the two pupils had shown promise of a better IT future for Nigeria.

He said, ”When these students come of age, and with the additional training they are likely to receive, these qualifications will translate to real, marketable job skills, ready to be used immediately. Their success at the examination is evidence that the talent is available in Nigeria to achieve great things in technology given the right training.

”We are working with New Horizons to roll out this programme across Nigeria, based on the success of this partnership. More importantly, this is true empowerment, as we are not only targeting private schools but also government schools.”

Responding on behalf of the two, Osaremen said they were delighted with their achievements.