By Chukwuma Umeorah
The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) in collaboration with the US and Global Tech Africa (GTA) has pledged to cooperate with critical stakeholders to build an ecosystem that would deepen the adoption of digital technology and Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Nigeria and Africa.
GTA, an initiative of the Future Map Foundation, is designed and implemented by Ascend Studios Foundation.
The Director-General of NITDA, Inuwa Kachifu Abdulahi, while speaking at the GTA Summit in Lagos, emphasised that Nigeria, despite having untapped talents, has the potential to harness the benefits of digital technology and AI while contributing to the promotion of core national values and the economy.
He noted that it serves as part of efforts to develop the National talent strategy that would help to position Nigeria at the global talent factory in line with the renewed hope of President Bola Tinubu administration to create jobs in the digital economy.
Identifying the stakeholders, Abdulahi also stated that the government was working assiduously to put in place all necessary infrastructure to achieve the goal of digitalizing the nation and strengthening partnership with global tech giants.
“We need five critical stakeholders to be in this ecosystem; the higher institutions that produce human capital, corporate organisations that absorbs these human capital, the entrepreneurs that can start and grow businesses, venture capital; people that can invest in those innovative ideas and we need government whose role is to intervene in the area of policy making and infrastructure.
The innovative ecosystem is very huge valued at over $5 trillion. Research has proved that countries with a strong innovative ecosystem create jobs at twice the rate of countries or regions with a weak innovative ecosystem. According to Statista, digitally transformed enterprises contributed $13.5 trillion to the global GDP in 2018 and this is projected to go up to $53.3 trillion in 2023. That means that innovation is leading when it comes to wealth creation. This is what we are trying to build with Global Tech Africa.”
The CEO of GTA, Dr. Inya Lawal, while speaking to newsmen at the sidelines of the event, stated that Nigeria needs to utilize its potential and take their place there is a great focus in the global digital space. According to Lawal, there is a need to build and be ready for global investments.
She pointed out that Nigeria and Africa needed to move more in the area of trade and partnership as regards the digital ecosystem and change what hitherto was the era of grants and aids from advanced countries to the continent.
“Currently, there is a focus on ‘Trade and not Aid’, because what we used to have was monies being brought in as aid, but now, we are saying that we are ready for trade and partnerships. Nigeria has always been ready, but the deal is about bringing everyone together, public, private and development sector to work together to build this ecosystem and that is what we aim to achieve with GTA”, Lawal explained.
The US Consul General, Will Stevens commended the initiative while reiterating the support of the government of the United States to strengthen partnership with the Nigerian government and other stakeholders for the realization of the initiative. “The Biden administration is deeply committed to partnering with Nigeria and the ecosystem to continue to generate growth.”
He further called for easy access to capital and improved infrastructure for businesses. “There is need to take the creativity and give it access to capital so that Nigerian companies would prosper, and we would begin to see more unicorn companies coming out of the Nigeria tech ecosystem. 5 out of 9 unicorn companies in Africa are already based in Nigeria, and we expect that to keep growing.”