According to the World Bank, African countries must urgently train their youth on future needs, digital skills notably, to facilitate professional integration for millions of people. Most countries have taken the advice and are taking measures to develop local digital talents. 

Morocco’s Oujda region will launch its center for collective intelligence by late 2022. Baptized Zone01 Oujda, the center will develop local digital talents. The partnership agreement for the creation of that center was signed by the region’s authorities and digital training institution 01Talent Africa on the sidelines of the 9th edition of Africities (May 17-21, 2022) in Kisumu, Kenya.

Zone01 Oudja will be hosted at Mohamed First University’s knowledge campus. The 500-student infrastructure will have three specific institutions. Namely, there will be a coding school and a programming school specifically dedicated to professionals- those serving regional and local administrations. The third institution will be a talent management agency whose main mission will be to provide IT services to local, regional and international partners by using the talents trained at the coding school.  

The selection, open to under-18 Moroccans, will be a two-phase process (it is expected to start in the second half of 2022). During the first phase, pre-selected candidates will take a 4-week training. At the end of that training, a group problem-solving test will take place to select those who will take a 2-year digital training with a guaranteed job after the training.  

The project is one of the Oujda region’s strategies to digitize its economy and boost its attractiveness. The region wants to train its youth in digital skills to help them find jobs and become important players in the local and national ecosystem with the digital transformation that is being accelerated everywhere. In that regard, the region has entered into strategic partnerships with the Ministry of Higher Education, the agency for economic development ADPS, the United Cities and Local Governments of Africa (UCLGA), and the Oujda regional investment center CRI. 

Also, in January 2021, the CRI signed a memorandum of understanding with the Federation of Information Technology, Telecommunications and Offshoring (APEBI) for the accelerated development of offshoring and digital ecosystems in Oujda. 

Ruben Tchounyabe