The Director-General, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa has reiterated the need for Nigerian youths to leverage on the growing digital sector, to tackle the myriad of challenges facing the nation, as innovative ideas cannot be monopolized.
While speaking to over 1,500 participants during the 2022 Blockchain Developers’ Summit which held in Abuja, with the theme “Stimulating Blockchain Adoption in Nigeria”, The NITDA DG averred that the Agency is committed to creating and stimulating the ecosystem for Blockchain technology and indeed Nigerian innovators to thrive.
Inuwa who also inaugurated the Baze AI/Blockchain Laboratory in company of some international innovators, encouraged the participants who were mostly Youth Corp Members to upscale their talents and contribute their quota towards nation building, as there are a lot of opportunities in Blockchain.
According to him, “Talent is the human component of technology. When you talk about any innovations, especially Blockchain and emerging technologies, it is about the new solutions one is bringing onboard; so you need to task yourself to know which solutions or offerings the industry requires”.
“Innovation is beyond invention, it needs to get to the point of commercialization. Untill you can pitch your idea to someone to pay for your solutions, the innovation would sadly only be just an idea. So, we are building an ecosystem that will enable you to hatch your ideas from conception to realization”, the DG stressed.
The DG further noted that although the President Muhammadu Buhari’s Administration has exhibited a strong political will to continually make the right policies and create an enabling environment for tech innovation ecosystem to suceed, the Federal Government however, cannot possibly give out grants or seed funds to everyone at the same time, hence, the need for them to engage with both local and International investors.
Inuwa recalled that in 2019, President Muhammadu Buhari renamed and expanded the mandate of the Ministry to cover digital economy which has necessitated the now Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy to create value, wealth and prosperity via the digital economy.
On the Agency’s part, the Director-General seized the opportunity to enlighten the crowd that the Agency had developed a Strategic Roadmap and Action Plan (SRAP) in line with the policy, which has seven pillars with three of them, such as Digital Transformation, Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship, and Emerging Technologies.
“We have so many initiatives: Under “Innovation and Entrepreneurship”, we established the National Centre for Artificial intelligence and Robotics (NCAIR); The Office of the Nigerian Digital Innovation which works with the ecosystem to help come up with policies that will enable you thrive in what you do”, the DG recounted.
He also mentioned other initiatives, including iHatch, Digital Fabrication Lab, TIE (Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship) Support Scheme which he said identifies people with promising ideas and places them in IT hubs across the country for training as well as help turn their ideas into realities.
“We developed the blockchain adoption strategy basically to help stimulate the adoption of blockchain in the country and we have identified six initiatives we are going to implement to achieve that; firstly is to establish the Nigerian Blockchain Consortium which this summit is helping to do that; Secondly, is to strengthen developmental regulation and law; Find focus areas; Promoting Literacy and Blockchain; Digital Innovation Incentivization and the Startup Bill which has passed through the third reading in the National Assembly”, Inuwa added.
Inuwa therefore charged the Youth Corps Members to take advantage of the opportunity and start a business before the end of their service year and possibly always ensure to be among the first movers in any digital related endeavours.
Other speakers including the National coordinator, National Centre for Artificial intelligence and Robotics (NCAIR), Eng. Ya’u Garba and some International Inventors alluded to the promising future that awaits Nigeria upon the successful adoption of the tech.