As a step towards developing the human capital in the state, Start Innovation Hub under the leadership of Hanson Johnson, in collaboration with the Akwa Ibom State Government, has put together the Akwa Ibom Tech Week.

Akwa Ibom Tech Week is an event that looks to foster relationships among start-ups and also encourage young people in the State to go learn tech skills.

The event, which is currently ongoing at Sheraton Hotels, Ikot Ekpene has been very beneficial to the participants as it has played host to a lot of influential individuals in the tech ecosystem.

These include Aniedi Udo-Obong, who is currently a Program Manager and Software Developer at Mountain View, California; Richmond Bassey, CEO of Bamboo; Aniebiet Udoh, founder of KodeHauz; Nick Marden, CEO of Rapid River Software, amongst others.

Hanson Johnson, the founder of Start Innovation Hub and president of the Ibom Innovation Network explained that the event seeks to garner investors and bring the sons and daughters of Akwa Ibom who have made exceptional progress in the field of tech back to their roots to encourage young people in the state to skill up with tech.

He also appealed to the state government to pay enough attention to the tech space in the state as well as ensure that the environment is safe enough for the investors that they hope to bring in through this event to be able to bring their businesses here and thrive.

In an interview with Kristina Reports, Israel Hosanna, a participant at the event and a Community and growth manager expressed his satisfaction with how the event was conducted.

He explained that although he has been in tech for some years now, listening to the guest speakers speak, he has been encouraged to not give up on himself and the tech space in general.

“It’s been beautiful listening to the likes of Mark Essien and Aniedi Udo-Obong speak. These are people that we only heard about from afar, being able to sit directly under the sound of their voice to learn has been a beautiful experience, big ups to the organizers of the event.”

Samuel Joseph, another participant and a Marketing manager explained that his sole purpose of being at the event was to build networks and establish meaningful connections that will help him in his career moving forward.

He explained that being that the event was a gathering of very innovative minds, he went in there to lay the foundation for extraordinary things that will be done in the future.

“I am just here to network, meet people during the break period, get to know what they do and find out if we could do business together and it was very successful. This event is the beginning of new things in the field of tech in Akwa Ibom.”

The event was sponsored by a lot of tech startups such as Moniepoint, Africa Comicade, FOUND, and Vpay as well as other companies like Ibom Air.