Ondo State Governor, Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, SAN, yesterday commissioned the Digital Village Project with an assurance that it will reduce rural urban migration.

The digital village project in partnership with America Tower Corporation will be in all the 18 Local Government Areas of the state with the two pilot centres at Uso in Owo Local Government and Ondo in Ondo West Local Government.

Beneficiaries of the projects are graduates and non graduates and it will be a continuous one for every two weeks free of charge.

24 trainees comprising 12 graduates and 12 secondary school leavers took off in each of the centres of Uso and Ondo Town and the beneficiaries were selected by their communities.

Commissioning the project at Uso in Owo Local Government, Akeredolu said it will reduce the high rate of youth unemployment in the society.

Represented by the Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Mr Femi Agagu , Akeredolu said the project is aimed at creating digital village that will encompass all the rural dwellers.

Senior Special Assistant to Ondo State Governor on ICT and Chairman of State Information Technology Agency, Mr Olumbe Akinkugbe said the project is ICT resource-based centre with the aim of providing various services to the public through computer connected with Internet, cameras, printers and other communication infrastructures all backed with 24 hours service.

He said the projects is targeted at the young school leaver and unemployed graduates with a view to engaging them in a productive and meaningful venture that will bail them out of endless search for white-collar jobs.

“It is the intention of the government to develop various ICT skills in the teeming youths so as to make them self reliant or employable in the digital economy.”

On other benefits of the projects, Akinkugbe submitted that it will drastically reduce youth restiveness, thuggery, rural urban drift among other social vices.

He expressed belief that some of the youths will undoubtedly start their ICT entrepreneurship investment through other ICT dependent services such as Point of Sale (POS) Internet services and banking agency to boost rural trade and commerce.

Akinkugbe said the project is one of the means of inculcating the rural dwellers to enjoy what those in the cities are enjoining.

It will be easier for the people in the rural communities to transact their business online without coming to the city. JAMB, WAEC and national and international examinations are now registered online and we are in digital world. It will make everybody in Ondo State to be compliant irrespective of where you live.