TWITTER CEO URGES AUST STUDENTS TO FOCUS MORE ON JOB CREATION

The co-founder and CEO of social media service, Twitter, and mobile payments company, Square, Mr. Jack Patrick Dorsey, has advised students of the African University of Science and Technology (AUST), Abuja in particular and the young people in general to focus more on creating jobs than seeking after them.

Dorsey made this statement during an interactive forum titled“ Youth Unemployment, Science and Technology Innovation in Nigeria & The Role of Social Media With Particular Reference to Twitter” held recently at the AfDB Ultra Modern Laboratory Auditorium, AUST campus, Abuja.

He urged the young generation of scientists and engineers in AUST to leverage technology tools including Twitter to build and bolster their entrepreneurship and research challenges.

According to him “ the job with marketplace has changed and young people need to relate with the global trends that requires more creativity and ability to initiate solutions than to be dependent on paid employment” he enthused

Corroborating on Dorsey’s charge, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Nigeria’s former finance minister, Board Chair of the university and of the Twitter lnc, encouraged the students to rethink their attitude to education and work and to see  technology as a tool to create new solutions and expand the frontier of business.

Welcoming Jack Dorsey and his team to AUST, the Acting President, Professor Charles Ejike Chidume, thanked the Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey for accepting to visit AUST despite his busy schedule. He also extended his appreciation to the Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala for facilitating Dorsey’s visit reiterating the university’s preparedness to partner with the social network guru as a way of impacting positively to science, technology and innovation using twitter as a social network tool.

Prof Oye Ibidapo-Obe, the Chair, Governing Council for AUST, said the university would be glad to work with Twitter on reducing the unemployment rate in the country which he described as alarming.

Kola Aina, founder, Ventures Platform; Hamzat Lawal, founder, Connectis Development; Okonufa Gift Isi, Content Creator freelance; Zainab Akwanga, Co-founder, Daniel Amokachi Foundation and Numfor Linda Bih &Nnaemeka Ebechidi, Ph.D students, Materials Science and Engineering, AUST, Abuja formed the crop of panelists that deliberated on the theme mentioned above.

The Twitter CEO was accompanied to AUST by fourteen staff members including Kayvon Beykpour, Co- Founder and CEO of Twitter’s Video streaming application, Periscope; Parag Agrawal, Chief Technical Officer at Twitter, TJ Adeshola, Head, US Sports partnerships at Twitter, Michael Montano, Lead Engineer, Twitter amongst others.