From Uyo to the Niger Delta: 12 years of building digital possibility

Roothub’s April 2024 account marked ten years of training work. That places its beginnings around 2014: roughly 12 years by October 2026. The timeline comes from the organisation’s own history, rather than an independently audited founding record.

Those Akwa Ibom roots matter. Access to guidance, equipment and a learning community can change whether a beginner keeps going after the first difficult lesson. Building that support locally means talent does not have to start in Lagos to start moving.

According to co-founder Tony Onuk’s 2024 account, Roothub had trained 3,300 people within Akwa Ibom before its Google-backed expansion. The Google collaboration in 2018 targeted 10,000 learners across the nine Niger Delta states.

The 2019 tour gives that ambition a concrete setting: outreach in Uyo and Eket, followed by activity across the region. These are documented programme locations, not a claim that every community received the same level of support.

In April 2024, Roothub reported training more than 32,000 young Nigerians over ten years. The same account described a 2020 Facebook collaboration that used the platform as a training tool and reached more than 20,000 people across Nigeria.

Roothub also reported around 1,200 placements worldwide. These are historical, organisation-reported figures. They do not establish the number of unique beneficiaries in Akwa Ibom today, and the programme totals should not be added together: participants may overlap.

The broader lesson is about a pathway: skills, practice, mentorship and access to work. A training attendance number alone cannot tell the whole story.

In July 2025, Roothub announced its Calabar location as its seventh in Nigeria and third in the South-South. Its offering described certificates, mentorship, job pathways and entrepreneurship support.

The Roothub app carries that community approach into roothub.live. You can explore learning, meet other members and look for your next opportunity without waiting for a big relocation. Availability, eligibility and plan access still apply.

Twelve years of work is a foundation, not a finish line. The next chapter should be measured by what people can do with their skills — in Uyo, Calabar, Port Harcourt and beyond.