TECHDIGEST – Lagos State Government, yesterday, disclosed plans to empower over 100,000 pupils in 720 primary and secondary schools with Information Communication Technology (ICT), networking, and other technological skills in 2022 through its Eko Digital Initiative in developing the educational sector.

The Special Adviser to the Governor on Education, Tokunbo Wahab, who disclosed while briefing newsmen on activities of his office, at Alausa, Ikeja, said the aim, was to prepare the schoolchildren for the ICT revolution, which he described as the “Fourth Revolution.”

According to him, “Eko Digital programme is strategically placed to train and equip young students in Lagos State Government primary and high schools with the knowledge, skills and technical know-how that would enable them to thrive in the technology space.”

Wahab, said over 341,000 students in public and private schools have benefited so far in the initiative, while 60,000 penultimate and final year students of higher institutions across the state benefited from the state’s Job Initiative in the last two years.

Wahab who stated that the administration of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu is investing in human capital development, which is key to development, added that the budget performance of the office of Special Adviser on Education last year stood at 99.5 five per cent, with hope to perform optimally in 2022.

The Special Adviser, said in 2021, the present administration through the office upgraded 155, libraries in public schools across the state to revive reading culture among students, while a plan is on to upgrade 200 more.

Wahab, also stated that the allocation of 12.6 per cent of the budget to the education sector this year, will address more Infrastructural deficit in schools across the state, while work will intensify on the over 8000 bed space hostel being built at the Lagos State University, LASU, Ọjo.

Wahab, explained that by next week, recognition will be granted to the state by the National Universities Commission (NUC) to run the two new upgraded state universities.

He said, ‘’Last year was very eventful, one of our major Key Performance Indicator (KPI was that we were going to have a two new universities, two years ago we had done our findings, we had engaged consultants and the numbers were not looking good with respect to two of our institutions, those are colleges of educations, the enrolment was dwindling, the subvention we grant them every month was going up, same for their running cost, so we must do something urgently.

‘’The UTMC structure has made it clear to us that the best of our students are good for the universities, the second best will go to the polytechnics, the others will go to the colleges of education.

“You need to also bear in mind that NCE as a certificate is no more commanding in the market. Then the discrimination against Higher National Diploma, HND in the market was something we needed to address holistically, hence, we approached the Lagos State House of Assembly with two bills.

‘’This one, we thank the governor, the house of assembly and the Speaker, Mudashiru Obasa who showed leadership as usual.

“This is going to be the major part of this governor’s legacies, it showed that he has planned and prepared for the future of Lagos, Lagos students and their education ’’

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TECH DIGEST – In April, Africa’s leading Information Technology (IT) industry regulator, the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) unveiled its new Strategic Roadmap and Action Plan (SRAP 2021 – 2024) to accelerate Nigeria’s digital economy.

The launch of the SRAP document marked the highpoint of activities organised to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the agency.

It is anchored on the goals and objectives of NITDA’s seven strategic pillars, consisting of Developmental Regulation, Digital Literacy and Skills, Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Promotion of Indigenous Content, Digital Transformation, Cybersecurity, and Emerging Technologies.

Those seven strategic pillars are aligned with the mandate of the agency and in conformity with the vision of the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS) to reposition the Nigerian economy to harness digital technologies and their vast opportunities.

To ensure the successful implementation of the digital economy, the Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship and the Promotion of Indigenous Content pillars mandate the agency to create opportunities for the development of indigenous digital technologies and solutions in software, hardware and services.

Again, it is responsible for enabling the environment for the indigenous manufacturing of internationally standardised IT components to serve domestic needs, generate jobs, prosperity, and exports to boost foreign earnings.
In its commitment to sensitising the tech ecosystem on the provisions of the SRAP document, the agency has taken the step of reaching out to stakeholders to carry them along on the strategic four-year journey to strengthening the Innovation Driven Enterprises (IDEs).

This was demonstrated through a coordinated three-day advocacy visit to Lagos of the Director-General, Kashifu Inuwa, who used the opportunity to meet and interface with stakeholders in various areas of the innovative ecosystem within that jurisdiction.

Within three eventful days, Kashifu, from May 19 to 21, had a meeting with Lagos-based private sector players specialised in Fintech, software development, service/solution providers, and other stakeholders. They exchanged ideas on issues of regulation, infrastructure, the national economy, and sustainable growth.
Prior to the stakeholders’ forum, the NITDA helmsman paid a courtesy visit to the Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu at the government house, where he received commendation for the revolutionary work the agency is doing to develop the digital economy.

The governor also outlined some smart projects that the State is embarking upon, which include the proposed building of the biggest technology hub in Yaba, the establishment of the Science, Research Innovation Council in Lagos, the Unified Fibre Duct project, the free WiFi for public schools and institutions, among many other projects.

Presenting the SRAP to the governor, Kashifu explained that the document would help to unlock the digital economy potentials of Lagos State and transform it into the centre of digital excellence, since the State hosts the largest number of indigenous software developers, ICT hardware manufacturers and consultancy service providers.

He visited some tech innovation companies such as Rack Centre, AfriOne, MainOne MDXi and Venture Garden Group and urged government and private organisations to patronise indigenous startups in order to help position Nigeria as a leading player in the global digital economy.

Under the Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the SRAP clearly points to the importance NITDA attaches to holding of periodic IT stakeholder engagement with all the players in the sector including the media. This enables it to stay informed about the activities of the ecosystem for effective bonding.

Engaging with stakeholders is crucial to any organisation because it provides a platform for pooling knowledge, experience and expertise, and a shared understanding to co-create solutions, thereby building collaborative partnerships that generate value.

Regular stakeholder engagement would allow ideas to constantly flow between the private sector and the government. Such data would guide the government in the formulation of appropriate policy guidelines and regulations to ensure stability in the sector.

In addition, it establishes a sustainable communication platform that has the capacity to build trust between the regulator (government-related entities) and the startups to gain easy access to infrastructure, capital, and other resources for the uninterrupted flow of innovation.
The tour of Lagos by the NITDA DG did not only generated a buzz in the industry, but it also offered a great opportunity for the agency to review its relationship with the view to bridge any gap and keep all channels of communication open for effective exchange of information.

In fact, it is imperative that this stakeholder engagement initiative be sustained to encourage and drive startups to pool resources and create hubs within their localities to help boost the expansion of the tech innovation ecosystem across the states of the federation.

In conclusion, the innovative visitor would have been exposed to certain shortcomings/oversight on the part of his agency. Such anomalies have to be addressed before embarking on the next stakeholder engagement to other sections of the country.

Inyene Ibanga is Managing Editor Techdigest.ng and writes from Wuye District, Abuja.

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TECH DIGEST – Beneath the obvious national contradictions and challenges we face, there is a deep revolution brewing that is “innovation at the speed of thought”. One of the biggest perks of the Office of the Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) is the privilege of meeting the smartest people in Nigeria and beyond. I had looked forward to visiting the technology ecosystem in Lagos since early 2020, but COVID struck. So, we kept in touch virtually.

During COVID, the tech ecosystem made huge contributions to the nation, especially through the Tech4Covid committee. I had the privilege to inaugurate the committee under the supervision of the Honourable Minister for Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami. Thanks to the advice of that committee and other efforts, the digital ecosystem was able to help Nigeria out of COVID induced recession that promised to deal a death blow to our national economy.

On the 19th of May 2021, I had my long-sought opportunity to begin a 3-day tour of Lagos to meet with the innovation industry. After a breakfast meeting with the press, we hit the road to brave the legendary Lagos traffic to get to the Governor’s office.

The Lagos State Government had just implemented the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation (NDPR) for the health sector. Please take a pause to note that this scale of data protection implementation has not been reported anywhere in the world. Yes, we did it in Nigeria!

My team scheduled a visit to validate the work done by the Lagos Ministry of Health, but Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu decided to host us despite his busy schedule. In the meeting, the Governor and I compared notes. He reeled out the smart Lagos projects and innovative initiatives Lagos implements across the state. You could see passion, vision, and a clear strategy to take Lagos to the next level of excellence. I had the opportunity to brief Mr Governor on the groundbreaking initiates we also implemented in Lagos to support the State Government. So far, NITDA has implemented more than 40 projects in the state.

Furthermore, I shared our Strategic Roadmap and Action Plan (SRAP 2021-2024) document with Mr Governor, wherein I discussed the seven strategic pillars that would help catalyse Nigeria to greatness. Mr Governor’s remarks, “with you, Nigeria’s information technology sector is in safe hands”, humbled me. The Governor and I agreed that we would set up a team to support Lagos Smart Initiatives and that the state would host NITDA’s proposed NDPR Toolkits for the health sector.

Our next stop was at Rack Centre, a tier-3 data centre located at Oregun. The welcome reception from the Rack Centre Managing Director, Mr Ayotunde Coker, was thrilling. We had an exciting and productive engagement going around the state-of-the-art facility. We got first-hand information on the capacity of Nigeria to be the leader in data hosting and cloud service provision for Africa.

I saw faith at work in this complex. While many are checking out, some Nigerians are not just digging in. They are attracting foreign investment into the country. I took notes and stressed that we as government must do more to support enterprises like this.
The next day we visited the AfriOne factory, a licensed original equipment manufacturer in Lagos. I was pleased to see that technology hardware are assembled from the minute components. Some phones, laptops, tablets come with indigenous Nigerian languages such as Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo. Many young Nigerians work in this place while also training people to become phone and computer technicians. It was quite interesting, and we are working diligently to promote the indigenous content as a core pillar of SRAP. Our next stop was MainOne MDXi, another iconic data centre. We had a first-hand understanding of what we have in the country in terms of data centre as a solid infrastructure for the digital economy. With what I saw at Rack Centre and MainOne MDXi, I am proud to say that we have the massive computing power needed to process any amount of data in Nigeria. We are on track to securing our digital sovereignty as a country and Africa at large. These companies must be encouraged, promoted and patronised by all government and private entities.
On the 21st of May 2021, we started the day with a breakfast session with shakers and movers of the African largest innovation ecosystem. Top startups such as Innovation Support Network, Future Africa, Smile Identity, 54gene, Advocacy for Policy and Innovation, amongst others, graced the occasion.

We had an insightful session and discussed some issues affecting the tech ecosystem and areas that needed urgent intervention, including talent, demand, infrastructure, regulation, and capital. We also deliberated on the need to include the tech industry representatives in the SRAP projects steering committee and structured engagement between the government and private sector to implement all the initiatives across SRAP pillars and disseminate information across the ecosystem.

We had many invitations from different innovation companies, but time would not permit us to visit all. But there was one more stop I could not resist. Vibranium Valley (Venture Garden Group) which is located within the Lagos local and international airport premises. It is a story that I love to relive repeatedly. For context, this Valley is bunkered inside the factory of the former Concord Press, which signifies the symbol of what Nigeria can do. Concord newspaper was so successful that it was being sold on London and New York streets in the 1970s/80s.
So, for some intelligent young people to take over this abandoned factory and re-purpose it for a technology hub is the single most profound statement of Nigeria’s intent to reimagine and take our place in the world for good. In the Valley, we saw used cargo containers and old bus parts being turned to offices. Young people in t-shirts, shorts and dreadlocks were busy solving national and international problems in governance, healthcare, education, traffic and many more. The Valley has tens of products, lots of experienced programmers and hundreds of staff.

This last stop is a fitting reminder to me that we have the talent to be the best we can. With the kind of smart digitally native guys, I met Nigerian digital economy vision, and our aspiration to be the African leader is possible; our only limitation is our imagination.

At NITDA, our belief is we cannot succeed in implementing our mandate in isolation. We are part of the innovation ecosystem. Therefore, we need to strengthen the partnership and broaden the collaboration. Together we can create and capture value in the digital economy.

NITDA pledges to be a close partner and broker between the tech ecosystem and government to ensure cohesion of purpose, direction and implementation of initiatives to make Nigeria achieve its digital economy vision. In a journey like this, some see despair and find excuses to jump ship, but we have many unsung heroes working hard to solve the Nigerian problems and make us great in the tech and innovation ecosystem. For such patriots, NITDA is here to serve.

Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, CCIE
Director General/CEO,
NITDA

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TECH DIGEST – Lagos State has opened discussions with technology giants, namely, Facebook and Google to deliver on Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s vision to create Yaba Technology Cluster, called K.I.T.E.

The K.I.T.E project entails making the Yaba Technology cluster a free zone that would allow the growth of funding and financing for innovative ideas generated by entrepreneurs.

K.I.T.E. is an acronym for Knowledge, Innovation, Technology and Entrepreneurship.

The Governor said that in the State’s bid to ramp up its intervention in provision of technology infrastructure and expand the tech space to accommodate more startups, Lagos State Government is set to embark on the construction of the biggest technology cluster in West Africa.

The Governor spoke of the development on Wednesday when he toured two major innovation and technology hubs within the State.

Accompanied by members of the State’s Executive Council, including Commissioner for Science and Technology, Mr. Hakeem Fahm, and Special Adviser on Innovation and Technology, Olatunbosun Alake, the Governor visited Venia Hub in Lekki and Impact Hub in Ikoyi, meeting scores of startups in the ecosystems for a roundtable discussion on expanding funding opportunities and infrastructure development.

Governor Sanwo-Olu in company of his Special Adviser on Innovation and Technology, Olatunbosun Alake during the tour of tech ecosystem in Lagos

Sanwo-Olu said the Yaba Technology Cluster, called K.I.T.E., would be a free zone that would allow the growth of funding and financing for innovative ideas generated by entrepreneurs in tech industry and FinTech space, adding that the ecosystem would also offer free labs for the use of startups to take their innovations to from ideation to the next level.

The Governor described technology as “the new oil” for Lagos, Africa’s largest megacity to exponentially generate wealth and jobs for its young population, while also leveraging it in raising the status of State to attain Fourth Industrial Revolution.

He said: “Technology is the new oil and the basic element for the Fourth Industrial Revolution globally. As a State with a massive population of young people, we need to play major role in the development of technology, which is an enabler to leapfrog into rapid socio-economic growth. We take technology as an important deliverable in our Government’s development agenda.

“For us to make lasting impact in tech industry, we said to ourselves we needed to build the infrastructure to support sector. We are building a tech campus on a 22,000 square meters land in Yaba, which we christen K.I.T.E. We are working with global brands in the tech space, such as Facebook and Google, to deliver this important technology hub.

“We are currently laying 3,000 kilometres metropolitan fibre optic cables across the State to drop reliable and fast Internet connectivity in homes and work places. These are part of the infrastructure required as backbone for the tech industry to flourish and empower our young people in the space to take their businesses and ideas to the level of stability.”

Aside the infrastructural initiatives, Sanwo-Olu said the State Government had been providing support for startups through the Lagos State Employment Trust Fund (LSETF) and Lagos State Science Research and Innovation Council (LASRIC), which provide grant opportunities for innovators and tech researchers.

The Governor disclosed that two out of the 20 start-ups ideas supported through LASRIC last year had secured patents for their innovations and ready to transform into fully-fledged businesses that would create jobs.

Sanwo-Olu said the State Government’s intervention in the technology space was about creating opportunities for the future and providing platforms to make start-up businesses thrive.

He said: “The visit to your ecosystems today is for you to be assured that this Government is not sitting back in taking steps to ease access. We fully understand the role which technology plays in our lives and how technology is important to any society that wants to be relevant in coming decades. We are happy to be building the capability for Lagos, so that we can compete with other developed cities in the world.”

The Governor had a roundtable discussion with some of the startups to communicate the State’s effort and how better the Government could properly channel its interventions in the sector.

Some of the startups had the opportunity to present their business models and innovative solutions to the Government’s team. The engagement gave the Governor and his team the possible areas of intervention.

LSETF Executive Secretary, Mrs. Teju Abisoye, said the agency had been providing support for over 38 partner hubs across Local Government Areas (LGAs) and Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) in the State, stressing that the objective of the funding was to support startups from idea to exit stages.

Venia Hub is an ecosystem housing Flutterwave and 100 other tech start-up companies. Impact Hub also has scores of startups operating in its ecosystem.

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TECH DIGEST – Lagos State Government is set to launch its advanced open data digitisation programme, tagged “EKO 360” very soon.

This was disclosed by the State Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget, Mr. Samuel Egube, during the annual ministerial press briefing to commemorate the second year of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s administration in the State.

He said, the Lagos State Open Data Agenda, the project tagged ‘‘EKO 360’,’ is a two-year digitalisation programme, which commenced 1st November, 2019, with support in three COFOG (Health, Education & Economic Affairs), sectors from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation/Data Science Nigeria (BMGF/DSN), which is meant to strengthen the Lagos Bureau of Statistics.

Egube said the Ministry, through its Lagos Bureau of Statistics (LBS) exhibited her EKO 360 Open Data Project at the Art of Technology (AoT) Lagos 2.0 conference, showcasing the dummy of the Public Facing Portal and the Analytical Framework, which will afford the general public access to Lagos State specific data in a richer, faster and timely manner. Adding that the project is presently in the testing stage of the developed data collection app that is meant to automate the data collection of the State administrative data management system.

‘This project focuses on historical aggregation of Lagos data, pattern forecasting based on organized insights from the past, Real time data collection with the EKO360 Mobile App, Derived Data generation that combines data from different sources to create new and meaningful data, provision of contextual and geospatial insights from Lagos Spatial Data, on-the-go access and usage through a simple presentation interface for all smart devices on the EKO360 website which will afford the general populace access to Lagos data and insights in a self-service format that assures of ease of usage and convenience.’

While reeling out other achievements of his ministry within the last two years, he pointed to two major state survey also by LBS, which are the Poverty Head Counts survey and Household survey across the 57 Local Governments/ Local Council Development Areas between August and November 2020.

The above surveys provided government feedbacks and insights from Lagosians and serve as validated facts and figures that further guide government interventions.

Meanwhile Egube has said that the Economic Development Policy of the State Government which was guided by the State Development Plan (2012-2025), has now been improved on, making it a 30-Year Development Plan (2021-2051).

This new perspective plan is necessary so as to “Encourage Citizens Participation” (Build Team Lagos), “Develop our people to drive productivity and protect the vulnerable” (Building our Future), Drive Lagos readiness and openness for Business (Building Our Economy), Optimising relevant infrastructure to support our growth” (Building Our 21st Century Mega-City) and “Engaging intergovernmental Partnership”, all these aimed at improving the quality of lives of Lagosians”.

The LSDP sits at the apex of the Planning and Budgetary system of the State. The document provides overall direction for the growth and development of Lagos State. It also provides a framework through which all sectors of the economy, public, private and civil society can direct their energies and contribute to the improvement of the quality of life of people in the State and it is intended to drive and guide all processes.

As a planning document, it acts as a guide for all MDAs as they develop their sector policies, strategies, programmes and projects in order to reflect the vision of the State.

Furthermore, as part of the effort of the Administration to ensure performance in all its projects and programmes, the State Executive Council (EXCO) approved the implementation of the T.H.E.M.E.S. Peer Review Mechanism (TPRM) to all MDAs as a self-Assessment programme.

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