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By Lukman Olabiyi
Lagos State Public Service Staff Development Centre (PSSDC), in partnership with the LEARNTOR Foundation, has intensified efforts to curb cybercrime among young people through technology education and skills development.
The commitment was restated yesterday, at the opening ceremony of the TechUp Boys Bootcamp III held in Magodo, Lagos.
Speaking at the event, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education, Abisola Dokunmu-Adegbite, said the initiative was aimed at equipping youths with practical digital and technological skills that would provide sustainable alternatives to cybercrime and other social vices.
She noted that empowering young people with relevant competencies within the technology ecosystem would enhance their employability while promoting the responsible and ethical use of digital tools.
According to her, the programme aligns with the state government’s broader youth empowerment, education and security strategies.
Dokunmu-Adegbite added that collaboration with credible non-governmental organisations remained critical to addressing emerging challenges such as cybercrime, particularly among school-age youths.
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On her part, the convener and Executive Director of LEARNTOR Foundation, Mrs Mercy George-Igbafe, said the bootcamp was designed to channel the energy and creativity of young people especially boys, towards productive and lawful digital careers.
She explained that the programme targets 250 indigent Senior Secondary School 2 (SS2) boys drawn from Lagos State public schools across the Alimosho zone in Education District I.
The participants, she said, would receive training in data skills, leadership development and career readiness to help break the cycle of poverty, cybercrime and cultism, while nurturing future technology leaders.
According to George-Igbafe, the TechUp Boys initiative supports the Ministry of Education’s focus on basic education, digital readiness, values reorientation and employability under the state’s T.H.E.M.E.+ agenda.
She disclosed that the foundation visited 25 schools within the Alimosho zone, with participants undergoing four weeks of online training.
She added that the top-performing 300 students, alongside 50 educators, are expected to converge at the PSSDC for live demonstrations in data analytics, including Microsoft Excel, and financial bookkeeping.
Participants at the event described the bootcamp as a timely intervention, expressing optimism that it would help reduce youth involvement in cybercrime while fostering a new generation of skilled technology professionals in Lagos State.
