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UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed Leads High-Level Delegation to Imo Digital City, Hails Youth-Led Innovation
Admin09/11/2026IDCL, Egbu, Owerri07:45am
A high-level delegation led by the United Nations Deputy Secretary-General, Amina Mohammed, on Wednesday, September 9, 2026, toured the Imo Digital City in Owerri, accompanied by the Commissioner for Digital Economy and E-Governance, Dr Chimezie Amadi, in a visit aimed at assessing the range of technology and entrepreneurship initiatives being implemented at the facility.
The delegation included Elsie Attafuah, Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Programme, UNDP, in Nigeria and acting United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Nigeria; Hadiza Elayo, Special Assistant to the Deputy Secretary-General and Deputy Director of the Sustainable Development Unit; Beatrice Eyong, UN Women Representative to Nigeria and ECOWAS; and Dr Vanessa Phala, Country Representative for the International Labour Organization.
The entire management of Imo Digital City Limited, IDCL, was on ground to receive the visiting dignitaries and escorted the team round the various sections of the facility throughout the duration of the tour.
The delegation was received at the IDCL phone and laptop assembly plant, where officials were briefed on the operations of the facility and its role in local device manufacturing as part of the state's broader digital economy agenda. From there, the team proceeded to the robotics centre, interacting directly with learners undergoing training in robotics and related technical disciplines, before moving to the drone technology development centre, where Amina Mohammed and members of her team observed a live drone demonstration and commended the achievements recorded at the centre.
The delegation also visited the Entrepreneurship Centre, where officials of US Mac briefed them on the Founder's Dojo programme, an initiative designed to support early-stage entrepreneurs within the state's growing innovation ecosystem. The tour proceeded to a complex housing the My Imo App office, Adminting Office, the Developers Office and a podcast studio, where the delegation was briefed on the development of the state government's flagship digital application and its e-commerce and e-governance functions, and where members of the team appealed for a dedicated feature to serve retirees and pensioners.
Speaking during the visit in an interview segment titled "The Big Talk with Amina Mohammed," the Deputy Secretary-General, who described herself as a proud Nigerian, said the scale of technology development witnessed in Imo State reflected genuine government investment in young people and innovators addressing real-life challenges. She cited Sniffer, an application developed in Imo State to help locate persons in distress, as evidence that African youths were taking the lead in solving their own problems rather than waiting for external assistance. She called for such investment to be scaled beyond Imo State across all thirty-six states and the Federal Capital Territory, to enable innovators compete across West Africa, the continent and beyond.
Amina Mohammed further called for the replication of innovation hubs similar to the Imo Digital City across the country, stressing that the empowerment derived from such facilities held the potential to transform the fortunes of young Nigerians on a much wider scale. She argued that expanding access to such platforms would not only build technical skills but also create pathways to sustainable livelihoods for a broader population of youths currently excluded from the digital economy.
Linking the absence of opportunity to insecurity, the Deputy Secretary-General stated that crime was largely fuelled by hopelessness and a lack of access to opportunities, and that deliberate investment in youth empowerment and innovation represented a direct response to that challenge. She said platforms such as the Imo Digital City demonstrated how equipping young people with skills and avenues for productive engagement could reduce the conditions that pushed individuals toward criminality.
Asked to project the future of Africa using Imo State as a case study, Amina Mohammed said meaningful change could arrive within the next year or two, given the pace at which technology was connecting people across African borders. She said the continent was positioned not only to solve its own problems but to demonstrate solutions to the rest of the world, adding that young people were now in the driving seat of building their own future rather than merely being present at the table.
Addressing an estimated eighty thousand young persons reached through the engagement, the Deputy Secretary-General told them that sustained effort remained central to building a future, describing the process as a journey in which every step counted. She said the display of innovation gave her confidence in the prospect of peace, noting that it created room for young people to move beyond conflict in pursuit of their aspirations.
The visit forms part of ongoing engagements between the Imo State Ministry of Digital Economy and E-Governance and international development partners supporting the state's digital transformation efforts. The Ministry, under Dr Chimezie Amadi, has continued to position the Imo Digital City as a central hub for technology training, entrepreneurship development and digital innovation, in line with Governor Senator Hope Uzodimma's Shared Prosperity agenda, with Wednesday's visit expected to further strengthen collaboration between the state government and the United Nations system.
