In its continued effort to transform Nigeria into a globally recognised hub of technology and innovation to drive economic diversification and boost productivity across all sectors, the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) is set to collaborate with relevant organisations in effectively cascading the benefits of digital technology to all the local governments across the country.

This was disclosed by the NITDA Director General, Kashifu Inuwa CCIE when he played host to the Senior Special Advisers to President on Community Engagement – South East, Barr Chioma Nweze; South West, Ms Moremi Ojudu and North West, Hon. Abdallah Tanko Yakassai who visited the Agency to discuss possible areas of collaboration on Nigeria’s digital transformation journey. This gesture is in total alignment with the present administration’s priority areas, particularly in the area of reforming the economy for sustained inclusive growth.

While stating the agency’s vision for Nigeria where inclusive economic growth is fostered through technological innovation, the NITDA DG noted that the vision aligned with the president’s 8 priority areas.

“The President wants to Reform the Economy to Deliver Sustained Economic Growth; Strengthen National Security for Peace and Prosperity; Boost Agriculture to Achieve Food Security; Boost Infrastructure and Transportation as Enablers of Growth; Focus on Education, Health and Social Investment as Enablers of Development; Accelerate Diversification through Digitisation, Industrialisation, Creative Art and Innovation; and Improve Governance for Effective Service Delivery to Citizens,” he said.

He added that the agency recently crafted its Strategic Roadmap and Action Plan (SRAP 2.0) 2024-2027, and its pillars are the tool that will help Mr President in delivering on all the presidential priority areas.

Enumerating the 8 pillars of the SRAP, Inuwa highlighted “Foster Digital Literacy and Cultivate Talents” as one of the most important pillars the document is anchored on where inclusivity is pronounced.

“To ensure we are inclusive, we need to get our citizens to be digitally literate, so we developed the National Digital Literacy Framework with an ambitious target of achieving 95% digital literacy by 2030 but Mr President cited a mid-term target for us to achieve 70% by 2027,” he stated.

He further said that the agency is collaborating with the Ministry of Education in infusing digital literacy into all academic institution’s curricula while at the same time developing standard training with certifications that would be a prerequisite for securing government employment.

“We have already worked with the Head of Service to put it as a requirement for government workers to be digitally literate. But for the market people, artisans and so on, what they need is the literacy to use digital devices to access internet banking, government digital services and others. We have therefore been exploiting many channels to deliver them through TV programmes, social media, radio, roadshows and so on,” he averred.

The NITDA Boss stated that, the 3 Million Tech Talent programme was another initiative of the Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy in collaboration with the agency to identify skill gaps in the country and build youth’s capacity on skills in high demand locally and internationally.

“We have started the training and so far we have trained over 30,000 and completed the first phase which is a pilot. We are now executing the second phase of the training,” he said.

While giving deep insight into the other seven strategic pillars of Building a Robust Technology Research Ecosystem; Strengthening Policy Implementation and Legal Framework; Promoting Inclusive Access to Digital Infrastructure and Services; Strengthening Cybersecurity and Enhance Digital Trust; Nurturing an Innovative and Entrepreneurial Ecosystem; Forging Strategic Partnerships and collaborations and lastly, Cultivating a Vibrant Organisational Culture and an Agile Workforce in NITDA, Inuwa shared the various infrastructures, innovative solutions, sponsorships and training programmes the government has been offering nationwide.

In his remark, Hon. Yakassai appreciated the DG NITDA for his wonderful presentation by sharing insights into the various activities of the agency to ensure a digitally empowered nation by building the digital capacities of Nigerians.

He however expressed his team’s willingness to collaborate with the agency in the areas of propagating the agency’s activities to the grassroots throughout the 774 local governments in the country.

“Mr President is a grassroots person that is why he created this office so that we make sure whatever the government is doing is taken down to the grassroots level and we need to show the people the importance of your programmes and how they can key into it”, he stated.

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TECHDIGEST: First Bank of Nigeria Limited, Nigeria’s premier banking institution and leading financial services inclusion services provider, has won two awards: Best Bank in Nigeria 2022 and Best Banking Digital Transformation Nigeria at the International Investor Awards 2022, a print and online publication that provides insights, news, and visual informative pieces on topics ranging from world markets, investing opportunities, industry analysis, and much more. All content is aimed at the global investment community that wants to get ahead.

The bank was awarded the Best Bank in Nigeria 2022 award for its leadership role in promoting financial inclusion in Nigeria, which has been critical to improving people’s lives and stimulating businesses across the country. In addition, FirstBank was named Best Bank in Digital Transformation in recognition of its ongoing efforts to reinvent its digital banking channels, which have been critical in reinforcing the bank’s leadership role in promoting a cashless society in the country while providing customers with secure and seamless digital banking experiences. Among the bank’s digital banking channels are its recently unveiled fully automated branch (FirstBank Digital Experience Centre), *894# USSD banking, FirstMobile, First online, and WhatsApp banking. Expressing satisfaction with the bank’s performance “We thank International Investor Awards for the recognition, while dedicating these awards to our esteemed customers spread across the world for their unwavering patronage of our services throughout our 128 years of existence,” said Ms Folake Ani-Mumuney, Group Head, Marketing and Corporate Communications First Bank of Nigeria Limited.

READALSO: FirstBank Impacts Its Firstmonie Agents With N100 Billion Loan

“As a bank woven into the fabric of society, we remain committed to ensuring that our customers enjoy safe, secure, and advanced financial services as they seamlessly carry out their banking transactions on the go, regardless of where they are,” she concluded. Similar honors were bestowed upon the Bank in the fiscal year 2021. Most Innovative Retail Banking App Nigeria 2021 by Global Banking and Finance Awards; African Bank of the Year 2021 & Innovative Banking Product of the Year 2021 by African Leadership Magazine Awards; Best Internet Banking Nigeria 2021 by International Business Magazine; Best Financial Brand 2021 by Global Brands Awards are a few examples.

Other awards include Best Consumer Digital Bank 2021 by Global Finance, Alternative Delivery Channel of the Year 2021 by Business Day Banks and Other Financial Institutions Awards, and 2nd Most Admired Financial Services Brand in Africa by Brand Africa.

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TECHDIGEST – The Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Mal. Kashifu Inuwa has expressed optimism that Nigeria will in the coming years benefit heavily from the 1.78 trillion USD global spending on digital transformation.

The NITDA Boss, who expressed this optimism in Abuja during a Breakfast Session tagged “Journey to the Cloud,” which was organised by MainOne in partnership with NITDA, noted that such gains will be visible across the public and private sectors of the country’s economy.

“Occasioned by the “sudden digital shift the world is currently expressing” which would make the digital transformation global spending to 1.78 trillion USD before the end of the year 2022, there would be a drastic surge in Nigeria’s digital transformation projects in the public sector,” Inuwa, who was represented at the event by the Acting Director, Digital Economy Department, Engr Salisu Kaka said.

Quoting research conducted by the International Data Corporation that predicts digital transformation investment would total 6.8 trillion USD between 2022 to 2023, Mal. Inuwa believes that the world’s GDP is set to be digitalized by 2022 and 70% of organizations globally will have to accelerate their use of digital technologies, transforming existing business processes and models to drive customer engagement, employee productivity and business resiliency.

He attributed the digital transformation’s growth to several contributing factors that are awakening the consciousness of the world and reemphasizing the importance of digital technologies.

For instance, the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic is one of the reasons for the growth, stressing that the pandemic necessitated the need to create a new workspace, work culture and new competencies and capabilities.

This, according to him has considerably increased the digital transformation tempo around the globe in 2020.

In her welcome remarks, MainOne Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Funke Opeke who was represented by the company’s Head, Enterprise and Regional Business, Olubunmi Ogun disclosed the company has developed a reputation for providing highly reliable services.

READ ALSO : NITDA’s ONDI Organises Capacity Training Programme For Startups

She said the company today has provided Microsoft services for clients which involves creation of applications to aid ease operations adding that the acquisition of the company by Equinix would ensure more values are derived from the services of the company.

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TECHDIGEST – The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), has expressed optimism that in the coming years, there would be a drastic change in Nigeria’s digital transformation projects in the public sector.

The Agency said this would be occasioned by the “sudden digital shift the world is currently expressing” which would make the digital transformation global spending to 1.78 trillion USD before the end of the year 2022.

Kashifu Inuwa, the NITDA’s Director General, disclosed this in Abuja during a Breakfast Session tagged “Journey to the Cloud,” the event organised by MainOne in partnership with NITDA is aimed at sharing industry trends and experience towards accelerating digital transformation in the public sector.

Inuwa, who was represented by the Acting Director, Digital Economy Department, Engr Salisu Kaka quoted research conducted by the International Data Corporation that predicts digital transformation investment would total 6.8 trillion USD between 2022 to 2023, adding that the world’s GDP is set to be digitalized by 2022 and 70% of organizations globally will have to accelerate their use of digital technologies, transforming existing business processes and models to drive customer engagement, employee productivity, and business resiliency.

He attributed the digital transformation’s growth to several contributing factors that are awakening the consciousness of the world and reemphasizing the importance of digital technologies.

According to the DG, the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic was one of the reasons for the growth.

He added that, “the pandemic necessitated the need to create a new workspace, work culture, and new competencies and capabilities; this has considerably increased the digital transformation tempo around the globe in 2020.”

He observed that, as part of its Digital Transformation efforts in the last five years, NITDA has embarked on a series of initiatives to drive government-wide adoption of e-Government, digitization of Government processes, and improvement in the maturity of the country’s digital capabilities to match the realities of the global digital economy.

READ ALSO : NITDA, NASS, Others Forge Alliance To Sustain Digital Economy

He noted that “the efforts are regulatory and developmental in nature and are ultimately geared towards building a strong foundation for digital economy development and a proudly Digital Nigeria of our dreams adding that having a continuous interaction with the private sector which are the large supplier and the public sector the large consumers would enhance meeting the expectation of the sector”.

While acknowledging that the establishment of the Digital Transformation Technical Working Groups in the Federal Public Institutions was necessitated by the approval and the launch of the Nigeria e-Government Master Plan by the Federal Executive Council and the launching of the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy by President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019, Inuwa maintained that the two documents have provided “clear directions for the government’s digital transformation of the economy and the society for a digital Nigeria.”

He said, “We at NITDA believe that realizing the objectives of these two documents required building appropriate human capabilities, partnerships, co-creating, and knowledge-sharing environments. This belief puts the competence and capability of professional public servants at the forefront of NITDA’s effort on the digital transformation agenda and drives the Agency to continually seek partnerships that can further enrich our digital transformation Journey for a digital Nigeria.”

Inuwa, however noted that digital transformation has rendered countries and organizations more agile in responding to unknown changing phenomena making them more resilient adding that adoption of emerging technologies such as cloud services, Artificial Intelligence (AI) becomes imperative.

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TECHDIGEST- Giant tech company, Google says it plans to invest $1billion over 5 years to support Africa’s digital transformation.

The investment focuses on enabling fast, affordable internet access for more Africans; building helpful products; supporting entrepreneurship and small business; and helping nonprofits to improve lives across Africa.

Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet, announced the planned $1bn investment today at Google’s first-ever Google for Africa event, held virtually and live-streamed across Africa, including Nigeria.

Under the $1billion investment plan, Google is building global infrastructure to help bring faster internet to more people and lower connectivity costs. The subsea cable Equiano will run through South Africa, Namibia, Nigeria, and St Helena and connect the continent with Europe.

Through a Black Founders Fund, Google will invest in Black-led startups in Africa by providing cash awards and hands-on support. This is in addition to Google’s existing support through the Google for Startups Accelerator Africa, which has helped more than 80 African startups with equity-free finance, working space, and access to expert advisors over the last three years.

Google also announced the launch of an Africa Investment Fund. Through this fund, the company will invest $50M in startups and provide them with access to Google’s employees, network, and technologies to help them build meaningful products for their communities.

In collaboration with the non-profit organisation Kiva, Google is providing $10M in low-interest loans to help small businesses and entrepreneurs in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa get through the economic hardship created by COVID-19.

In addition, Google is expanding its commitment to support nonprofits working to improve lives across Africa, with $40M to help more partners who are responding to challenges they see first-hand in their communities – innovators like the Airqo team at Makerere University, who use AI and sensors to monitor poor air quality, a leading cause of premature death.

It is also providing $3M in new grant funding to expand this pioneering work from Kampala across 10 cities in 5 countries on the continent.

In 2017, Google launched its Grow with Google initiative with a commitment to training 10 million young Africans and small businesses in digital skills. To date, Google has trained over 6 million people across 25 African countries, with over 60 percent of participants experiencing growth in their career and/or business as a result.

Google has also supported more than 50 nonprofits across Africa with over $16million of investment and enabled hundreds of millions of Africans to access internet services for the first time through Android.

Pichai said: “We’ve made huge strides together over the past decade — but there’s more work to do to make the internet accessible, affordable, and useful for every African.

“Today I’m excited to reaffirm our commitment to the continent through an investment of $1B over five years to support Africa’s digital transformation to cover a range of initiatives from improved connectivity to investment in startups.”

Nitin Gajria, Managing Director for Google in Africa added: “I am so inspired by the innovative African tech startup scene. In the last year, we have seen more investment rounds into tech startups than ever before.

“I am of the firm belief that no one is better placed to solve Africa’s biggest problems than Africa’s young developers and startup founders. We look forward to deepening our partnership with, and support for, Africa’s innovators and entrepreneurs.”

Also speaking, South Africa’s Minister of Small Business Development, Stella Tembisa Ndabeni-Abrahams, said: “I am happy to note that Google has been active in supporting small to medium enterprises, dedicating even more resources to this sector, since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. In the last 12 months, Google has helped close to 500,000 African businesses get online and reach new customers.”

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TECHDIGEST – In an effort geared towards engaging the relevant stakeholders towards the implementation of the Strategic Road Map and Action Plan (SRAP) 2021-2024, Mallam Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, the director general, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), has urged the Nigerian Internet Registration Association (NIRA) to align with the Agency’s initiatives for them to fully enjoy its benefits.

Mallam Abbdullahi made this call when he received Mr Muhammed Rudman, president, Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA) and his team on a working visit to present the Association’s annual report to the Agency in Abuja.

He disclosed that NITDA, in its dynamism, has a lot of initiatives lined up for implementation and it is necessary for relevant stakeholders such as NiRA to keep up with the pace of the Agency by promptly keying into these initiatives.

“At NITDA, we are re-branding and re-calibrating ourselves with the new aspirations and realities of the digital ecosystem thereby going through so many transformations and you really need to key in and align in what we do,” Mallam Abdullahi stated.

The NITDA DG while stating that the Agency has set targets for internal stakeholders and special purpose vehicles of the Agency to re-align them with the repositioning of the Agency, urged NIRA to come on board in the implementation of some of the initiatives of the SRAP document.

“We don’t want to come up with regulations that will take over the MOU we have with you so we really need to sit down together and put you in our plans”, he noted.

With regards to a symbiotic relationship and support to NIRA, the DG disclosed the Agency’s commitment to enhancing the promotion and adoption of the association’s policy by mandating Data Protection Compliance Organisations (DPCO’s) and public service institutions to comply with the ‘.ng’ domain policy.

“Our Digital Transformation Technical Working Group (DTTWG) committee has written to 500 Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDA’s) on the need to comply with the ‘.ng’ policy and we have inaugurated about 100” he mentioned.

Mallam Abdullahi however sought the association’s assistance to be encouraging their customers to comply with the provisions of the Nigerian Data Protection Regulations and urged them to actively get involved in all the Agency’s events such as the Gulf Information Technology Exhibition and the Digital Nigeria.

“We need to agree on what you are going to do so that we can objectively measure and appraise your performance”, the DG concluded.

The chairman of the Association, Rudman in his presentation detailing the Association’s Annual Report highlighted some of the association’s challenges and efforts in increasing their revenue for the development of the digital ecosystem and the Nation at large.

He however gave assurance of the association’s commitment to aligning with NITDA’s strategic initiatives.

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TECHDIGEST – The basic reason that dragged me into the political terrain in 2013 was my becoming worried about the state of the youth especially those from my creed.

I had a desire to see the youth imbibing my understanding of life which had largely paid up for me at that time till today and I thought it was possible for every other person to do so but with the possession of certain principles which must be consistent.

The most important of such characters was Openness to acquire network and skills.

Consequently, my NGO named ‘One Heart Initiative for Equity and Good Leadership’ birthed the #30PercentOrNothing which aimed to speak to the youth to acquire the needed skills for self-survival as well as to encourage the government and private sector to utilise the youths to solve current problems, this however came with a caveat on the fact that the recruitment of such youth must be objective enough to ensure the appropriate skills requisite for the assignment were sufficiently available.

I was also part of the speakers at Aisha Buhari’s ‘Just the Beginning’ programme alongside Festus Keyamo and co. which was held at the Banquet Hall of the State House in 2015 to engage youths and celebrate President Buhari’s ascendence to presidency.

At the event, I told the youths present to cease from antagonism of the Jonathan presidency and utilise their social media handles in propagating the policies of government which their followers could key into and eventually culminate into them feeling inclusivity and benefaction of the government. The rest is history.

Against such backdrop, I supported and wrote different articles on issues I saw which had conformed to the narrative above.

Just recently on Thursday the 26th August, 2021, the All Progressive Congress party inaugurated a committee that will see to the Digitalization of the party processes and that caught my eyes. It was not the digitalisation attempt that caught my attention because the People’s Democratic Party had initiated the digital registration of members in recent times. It was the recruitment of the individuals to manage the process by the APC that moved me because it indeed sat exactly with our ideals.

Let me refer you to my article titled ‘Kashifu as a Vindication of Youth Excellence in Governance’ which I was published on the 20th August 2020 in Premium Times.

In the article I highlighted how important it was that Dr. Pantami had ensured that his recruitment process for the job was right and Mr. Kashifu had equally vindicated such choice. Our belief and commitment to such ideals was borne out of practical engagements and experiences and we do not have an iota of doubts that anyone who means business and patronises such recruitment process will eventually succeed.

Nigeria has got some of the finest young men full of critical skills. Any young man reading this by any means may choose to understand the importance of skill acquisition and imbibe same.

Mr. Azibaola Robert of Mangrovetech Construction and Engineering Ltd. was also a beneficiary of such ideals when in 2010 he chooses to publish a public advert for the recruitment of professionals to help in executing the provision of engineering infrastructure at Maitama Extension District project in the FCT, Abuja, a project which was the first of its kind to be awarded to an indigenous company in the FCT.

He succeeded in recruiting just 16 of us after a rigorous process and kudos must also go to Mr. Obinna Oleribe whose company oversaw the recruitment process. The rest about the success of the project can be found with the FCDA but it indeed showcased how far objective recruitment can go in the successes of ventures.

Therefore, the idea of the recruitment of Mr. Kashifu to head such a critical committee with its mandate including the formulation of strategy for the 2023 election leaves a lot of commendation for the Mai Mala Buni led caretaker committee which itself have been performing wonderfully well through the advancement of the membership of the party by porting so many opposition bigwigs.

I will encourage them to ensure more inclusivity going forward to the convention in order that the party becomes well entrenched in the Nigerian polity.

With the Digitalization committee and the recruitment of its chairmanship however, it does appear they are ready for such and I am confident they’ll surely succeed.

From the mandates of the committee, the APC has created a formidable mechanism to communicate with the youth which make up over 70% of the voting population. Only the youth understand the language of their constituency and one thing that I know Kashifu will do going by his antecedents is to make the assignment an all inclusive one for a united Nigeria and equally ensure his recruitment of those to drive the matter is objective enough to attract the requisite skills.

Our initial movement of 2014 was unsung to a large extent because of the absence of resources and a formidable platform but now that the APC has through critical leadership and reasoning offered itself for the actualisation of the 21st century rejuvenation by ensuring it stuck to appropriate recruitment at that, the party has positioned itself for entrenchment in the Nigerian polity for a long time to come.

All of us at One Heart Initiative for Equity and Good Leadership identify with this lofty idea and are open to provide any needed support because we believe strongly that the development of the Nigerian youth could lead to the cessation of many of the problems currently bedevilling our dear nation.

Hashim Suleiman
oneheartnaija@yahoo.com

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