The director general of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) Kashifu Inuwa has tasked tech innovators in Nigeria to proffer solutions to address the nation’s challenges.
He urged them to look around and identify the myriad of problems bedeviling the country, also noting that the federal government has already provided them with a level playing field to achieve that.
Mr. Kashifu disclosed this while speaking at Day Three of the Digital Nigeria International Conference 2022 held in Abuja, with the theme “Start-Up and Innovation Ecosystem Day”.
During his speech, the NITDA boss said that the government is committed to building a thriving tech ecosystem, while noting that for it to be achievable, it will require a joint effort from every stakeholder to play the role required of them.
In his words, “To build a very strong tech ecosystem, we need the government, the higher institutions, we need the entrepreneurs, the risk capitalists and corporate organisations everybody has its own role to play.
“The government needs you, needs your commitment the same way the government is committed. For the higher institutions, we need you to produce high quality education to the people because innovation, digital economy or knowledge-based economy are all human capital economy.
“Your greatest resources are not the mineral resources but it is what you have in your brain; we need higher institutions to produce the right skill, talents and people with entrepreneurial skills”.
“We need the number. We need people to have skills to use in the digital based technological environment and that is why we are training people on high earned skills to build the digital service because digital service is a product-based economy.”
Investors King understands that the federal government of Nigeria has continued to provide a level playing field for tech innovators in the country through the provisions of infrastructures, friendly policies, and legal framework amongst others, as well as the recent signing of the Nigeria Start-up bill into law by President Buhari.
Also, earlier this month, the federal government through the NITDA entered into a partnership with COURSERA, an online learning platform, to train 24,000 Nigerian youths on digital skills for a period of three years which is aimed at positioning Nigeria to be the global talent factory.
It is now left for skilled Nigerians to use their innovative ideas to create innovations and inventions that will address the myriad of problems bedeviling the country, as they have been tasked by the DG of NITDA.
