TECHDIGEST – Dopals Technologies, a Tech hub in Gombe State, is empowering young ICT firms to grow, Tech Digest reports.

In an interview with Tech Digest, Khalid Abdullahi Yero, the CEO of Dopals Technology, said their ICT firm has helped over 50+ SMEs launch and grow, while also unveiling their KoyaApp project which is helping learners connect to their cultural heritage by learning from people in their own local community.

Mr Khalid opened up how northeastern Nigeria is still trying to catch up with technology adoption, hence patronizing their services.

He also told TechDigest that their hub have trained over 1000 people in 3 years and have provided support, mentorship to many innovators and promised to have more in store for innovators from Incubation programs to bootcamps and networking event in 2023.

He commended government especially NITDA for doing a lot but there is room for improvement especially in making sure those incredible policies are been implemented.

“Our startup is already part of NITDA supported startups and a Key player in Gombe startup Ecosystem called Jewel Entrepreneurs.

“We have partnered with the likes of NITDA, NEPC and NYSC Saed office to deliver trainings and mentorships, we have been selected to participate in startup clinics and exhibitions organized by NITDA but in terms of funding or support in operating our business we still haven’t received anything from any organization yet but I’m optimistic we will get it soon”, he added.

He finally appeal to federal government, state government and private sector to partner and patronize startups, SMEs which will boost the large economy and be a win win for everyone.

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TECHDIGEST – Nigeria is regarded as Africa’s largest ICT market with 82 per cent of the continent’s telecoms subscribers and 29 per cent of internet usage.

Sub-Saharan Africa is also projected to be the fastest growing region with a compound annual growth rate of 4.6 per cent and a subscriber enrolment of over 167 million in the next five years. Nigeria is expected to account for over 55 per cent of this.

The NCC estimates that the country has about 76 million subscriptions on broadband which accounts for 40 per cent penetration and 195.4 million telecom subscribers as of December 2021.

The government of Nigeria recognizes ICT as the enabler for developing other critical sectors including education, healthcare, agriculture, and manufacturing. In its drive to diversify the economy from oil and gas, the federal government is encouraging partnerships between local ICT companies and foreign investors. To promote these partnerships and grow an entrepreneurial ecosystem in the technology sector, the country has supported creating government- or private-sector led incubator hubs, youth innovation programs, and science technology parks.

Abuja Technology Village, which serves as an example, received government support to become a destination for research, incubation, development, and commercialization of ICT.

READ ALSO : NITDA Inaugurates Taskforce On Domain Name Compliance Policy

Construction has begun at the site, and the government has granted Special Economic Zone status to Abuja Technology Village and other hubs to enable duty-free shipments and elimination of labour issues as a fiscal incentive to investors and entrepreneurs.

Speaking at a two-day National Conference on Non-oil Export with the theme, ‘Export for Survival: Optimising Nigeria’s Non-oil Export Potential’, organised by the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) recently, Nigeria’s Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo said “some of the country’s best stories are in the tech sector, with companies valued over $1billion each and all of these between two recessions.”

He said the tech sector is growing so well because there is a very large hand of the regulator upon it and added that “the country must seek to achieve a situation where regulators see themselves as facilitators of business.”

“This has been the focus of the ministry of Industry Trade and Investment especially with the MSME clinics where we try to show that the very best approach is for regulators to see themselves as those that must promote business,” the Vice President said.

Osinbajo said the government’s job is to enable businesses especially with the regulatory policies.

“The core mandate of the Presidential enabling business environment council found expression in the master action plan of 7.0 on the ease of doing business and in the way to consolidate and removal of regulatory constraints especially around agro-export and to drive the electronic filing of taxes and publication of insolvency regulation of companies and Allied matters Act 2020.

The 7.0.agro export plan prioritizes trade facilitation reforms to minimize cross border trade and transport logistics and for Nigerian companies to do better and to be more compliant with the AFCTA export compliance regulations,” he said.

“The plan for reduction of cargo clearance time has also begun with the facilitation of imports and exports with the introduction of installation of scanners supported also by the port community portal. One of the major problems and complaints that we have is that there is always physical inspection of goods as they come, but with the scanners we hope physical inspection will be greatly reduced.

“We have continued to meet the challenges facing us head-on and there are so many challenges, the government’s commitment to infrastructural development and also looking for ways of funding the exports in trade and investment is one commitment that the government has taken very seriously,” he said.

The Executive Director of the Nigerian Export Promotion Council, Dr. Ezra Yakusak, observed that report from Pre-shipment Inspection Agencies (PIA) revealed a significant growth in export proceeds in the last 5 years 2017-2021 from $1.2 billion to $3.4 billion as against an annual average of $22 billion food importation alone into the country. “To close this gap, concerted efforts are required from all practitioners in the non-oil export value chain,” he said.

Also speaking on the theme “Sustainable Market Access for Nigerian Non-oil Export,” Ambassador Adamu Mohammed Abdulhamid, Nigeria’s Ambassador to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) said the negative impact on Nigeria’s external reserve has exerted unprecedented pressure on Naira and weakened Nigeria’s ability to finance its import and undermine its Balance of Payment position.

He cited increased poverty and livelihood security difficulties and unemployment as part of the aftermath of these negative indices.

In order to build a resilient economy, Economic Diversification and digitization especially export diversification is key.

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TECHDIGEST – The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), Galaxy Backbone Limited, Phase3 Telecoms and other stakeholders are expected to lead conversations on Nigeria’s digital pathway as the ICT Week kicks off Tuesday in Abuja.

The event was Organised by the Cyber Future Academy in collaboration with the Committee on ICT, Cybersecurity and Digital Economy of the National Assembly and other stakeholders, the two-day event is designed to further raise awareness on Nigeria’s steady digital transformation and the potential areas of investments.

READ ALSO : National Assembly, Academy Make Big Plans Ahead ICT Week

The event’s theme is: “A Nation’s Roadmap to Digital Transformation through ICT and Innovation” and has already drawn commitments from private and public sectors’ stakeholders.

According to the Deputy Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on ICT, Cybersecurity and Digital Economy, Mr. Solomon Adaelu, while speaking on the ICT Week, “Nigeria was ripe for a digital revolution and requires the input of all stakeholders.”

The event holds at the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) Conference Centre Abuja at 9a.m. The conference is featuring in-country and offshore speakers; and will help leverage on a wide range of opportunities in global partnerships.

Chief Executive Officer of Cyber Future Academy, Collins Nnabugwu, said the Tech Week is raising awareness on the value propositions of ICT across different spectrums of Nigeria’s economy in addition to fostering partnerships across sectors as Nigeria gears up to 21st century digital economy.

“According to the World Economic Forum (WEF), Nigeria is projected to be on the path to digital transformation, with the population of technology adoption for doing business and daily living taking an upward trajectory,” said Nnabugwu in statement issued in Abuja this week.

He added: “For this to happen, serious attention must be paid to ICT and Innovation in order for the Nigerian economy to maximise the social impact and development trends in the global tech ecosystem.

“The focus of the ICT week will be to drive a new narrative that would propel creativity in the technology space, to scale innovative ideas and solutions,”

Nnabugwu noted that there was so much tech, digital skillsets and talent pool in the country to match the growing demand for jobs and careers in tech, to build and sustain the tech ecosystem.

To read more, visit : IT Edge News 

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TECHDIGEST – The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) have forged an alliance that could enable Nigeria to benefit from the yearly $4.7 trillion exportation of digital service.
This alliance is in line with the Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship Pillar of the NITDA’s 2021-2024 Strategic Roadmap and Action Plan recently launched.

This was made known during a press briefing hosted by Mr Segun Awolowo, the outgoing NEPC executive director, to commemorate the consolidation and partnership between the two organisations.

Mallam Kashifu Inuwa, NITDA director general, who was represented at the event by Dr Aristotle Onumo, the acting director, Corporate Planning and Strategy (CPS), said the partnership is aimed at facilitating the exportation of digital services adding that more partnerships of this nature from the public and private sectors would bring out synergy, exchange of ideas and knowledge sharing among them.

He emphasized that the digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship Pillar of SRAP enables NITDA to easily collaborate with relevant stakeholders in the exportation of indigenous services saying “It would not have been so for NITDA to collaborate with sister Agencies that have similar visions to drive digital economy to its rightful place in Nigeria.”

Awolowo, during his remarks, averred that the partnership has provided about N150 million support grant to innovation hubs across three geopolitical zones in Nigeria.

He said about 300 million in grants to support Start-ups that are exporting and have potential to export services in the Entertainment Tech, FinTech, EduTech and LogisticsTech sectors.

He stated that “We are also providing support to drive advocacy to ensure that Nigerian Start-up Bill is passed by the end of the year.”

He noted that due to the level of inter-agency collaboration between NITDA and NEPC, they have been able to attend to all areas of the services export ecosystem from regulatory challenges to access to market and finance, skills gaps, and most importantly digital infrastructure.

It could be recalled that some of the achievements of the partnership include the Outsource Nigeria Initiative, financial interventions for six Start-ups, support to three innovation hubs, setting up of skills acceleration centres and advocacy support for the Nigerian Start-up Bill.

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TECHDIGEST – Mohammed Bello-Koko urges all stakeholders to buy into the e-call up system for trucks

Nigerian Ports Authority’s focus in line with the federal government’s port reform agenda has been to enthrone a competitive port system that supports efficient handling of ships and cargo, facilitates the smooth evacuation of imports from overseas and receipt of exports from the hinterland, served by road, rail, and inland waterways.

Effective cargo handling requires that there must be adequate cargo handling plants and sufficient trucks for cargo evacuation from the ports. After the 2006 port concession programme, the Lagos Ports witnessed an upsurge in cargo throughput, and the deplorable state of the port access roads led to vehicular congestion on the port access corridors.

Traffic management along the access roads to the ports in Lagos grew into a major challenge for the NPA. Consequently, an Integrated Truck Traffic Management System (e-call up system) which requires the combination of information technology and physical infrastructure was evolved in partnership with an indigenous company – Messrs Truck Transit Park Limited (TTPL), to bring an end to the situation.

The e-call up system is based on the principle that all port-bound trucks shall be called from a truck park or empty container holding bay, before they can have access to the ports. The system manages the scheduling of trucks to access the ports from satellite truck parks or a pre-gate as the case may be, with minimal human interference.

The effectiveness of the e-call up system, however, is dependent on three major factors namely: physical infrastructure, information technology, and stakeholders’ collaboration.

Inadequate physical infrastructure (such as truck parks and holding bays) has been a major constraint to the smooth transfer and delivery of shipments in and out of the ports. To nip this challenge in the bud, the Nigerian Ports Authority mandated all shipping companies to comply with the authority’s empty container policy, which requires all shipping companies involved in container operations to have empty containers holding bays in locations other than the port precincts or the maritime logistics ring. The logistics ring is from Tin-Can Island Port to Mile Two and also from Lagos Port Complex to Eric Moore Bridge down to Orile -Mile Two.

With the e-call up system, movement of the empty containers from these holding bays is done electronically in scheduled batches.

The authority in December 2020 via a public advert invited private truck parks operators for their facility to be used as satellite truck parks after fulfillment of the set conditions in the advert. This is aimed at standardizing truck park operations and providing dedicated space where all the trucks hitherto on the roads and bridges would temporarily stay before being scheduled to the ports.

Also, the authority converted the Lilypond Container Terminal, Ijora to serve as truck transit park. The newly-built truck terminal at Tin-Can Island Port (known as MOB Park) was integrated into the network of parks for the e-call up system. The Ahmed Bola Tinubu Park at Orile Iganmu, provided by the Lagos State government has been identified as a potential feeder park to hold static traffic and also feed the Lilypond Truck Transit Park for the port-bound trucks. Currently, 31 truck parks have been approved across Lagos State to accelerate the implementation of the e-call up system.

All approved truck parks are to be well equipped with telecommunication gadgets that would allow for proper integration and monitoring of activities in these parks on a 24/7 basis.

Some of the equipment expected at the parks include closed circuit television (CCTV), electronic access barrier (Access Gate), inverters for constant power supply, reliable internet connection (preferably local area network, LAN) and bollards.

A team of officials from the NPA constantly visits these parks to ensure that these gadgets are functioning. The provision and installation of these hi-tech gadgets have accelerated the implementation of the e-call up system.

The Lilypond Transit Truck Park serves as the pre-gate and central control room for all truck park activities.

The e-call up system for trucks will not achieve the desired outcome if stakeholders do not buy into it. The NPA, therefore, sensitized both its internal and external stakeholders through town hall and virtual meetings.

Amongst the industry stakeholders engaged by the authority include freight forwarders, shipping companies, and the various transport unions operating at the port, owners of empty container holding bays, barge operators, and terminal operators.

Nigeria Customs Service, Federal Road Safety Corps, and relevant agencies under the Lagos State Government serve as the enforcement backbone of the project.

The authority also embraced the intermodal transport approach in tackling the vehicular congestion on the port access roads by encouraging the use of barges. Trucks are captured on the “eto” platform, and are moved via barges to the port thereby reducing the travel time had the truck moved by road to the port.

To address the bottleneck faced by exporters to process their documents, the NPA engaged the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) on the establishment of export processing terminals to ensure that export containers are given priority. All export documentation would take place in the terminals, thereafter the trucks conveying the export containers will now be scheduled to access the port electronically.

The e-call up system like any other novel initiatives comes with its teething problems. However, these teething problems are surmountable and the authority is working towards resolving them.

Enforcement of traffic rules and regulations has been a challenge since the roll-out of the e-call system in February this year. But a key deliverable that we’re working to establish is a dedicated unencumbered lane for other road users along the port corridor, Ijora to Apapa 24/7. This is the source of discontent by the Apapa residents of unregulated truck movement within the Apapa environment.

Other challenges are poor supervision at night of trucking activities and the activities of security agencies (Nigeria Police/LASTMA/NPA Security/FRSC), miscreants called ECOMOG Boys and members of the disbanded Presidential Task Team that are having adverse effects on the ecosystem. The Lagos State Police Command has identified over 30 checkpoints specifically interfering with traffic movement and sabotaging the e-call up project.

The NPA has, however, intensified its engagement with the system operator – Messrs TTP Ltd., and others stakeholders to enhance service efficiency and response time to users of the “eto” platform.

Bello-Koko, is Acting Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority

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