Maker of BlackBerry smartphones, Research In Motion (RIM), says it has trained 70 Nigerian youth entrepreneurs on how to develop mobile applications at a developer training forum.

Speaking at the just concluded training in Lagos, the regional director, East, West and Central Africa, for Research In Motion, Waldi Wepener, said the training was aimed at helping the participants develop interest in designing applications for the forthcoming BlackBerry 10 platform.

He added that the training was also aimed at providing the participants with tools to simplify application development process.

Wepener added that RIM had transformed the developer experience with BlackBerry 10 by creating an open platform to enable developers to leverage their range of existing skills.

"Whether the developers choose to develop HTML5 apps or native apps, our environment will enable them to use their best skills to quickly create apps with great user experiences,” he said.

Wepener also pointed out that to date, RIM has held BlackBerry 10 developer events in cities across North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and now in Africa, offering developers around the world the latest information about BlackBerry 10 and the opportunities the new platform offers for creating powerful apps.

A participant in the training forum and co-founder, CcHub, Mr. Femi Longe, said he was impressed after seeing what BlackBerry 10 has to offer.

"At CcHub, we have strong ties with the developer community and encouraging development is our goal.

"We are eager to start utilising the updated UI features offered by Cascades in BlackBerry 10 and we look forward to enriching the user experience to ensure our BlackBerry-based solutions and applications remain attractive and cutting edge in the competitive smartphone arena," said Longe.