Technology is Foundation of our Development, Say Arewa Youths
By Zeenat Sambo
TECHDIGEST – Young Arewa tech experts have called on northern stakeholders to empower the youth more in digital innovation and digitalise local content to facilitate digital marketing.
The Arewa youngsters spoke at the “30 Under 30 Arewa Stars,” award ceremony in Kano which celebrated the best brains from the North who are making impact and inspiring others.
The digital panel section themed “Convergence of technology for youth enterprise” highlighted the progress, promotion and sustainability of technological awareness in the north to facilitate digital inclusion and economic prosperity.
Speaking at the event, the Managing Director of Phoenix Renewable Energy, Mustapha Abubakar Gajibo said technology is built to solve problems.
“To solve all these problems, we came up with solar powered vehicles to reduce the cost of transportation due to high prices for petrol and global warming. I am proud to say that as an Arewa youth, we have been able to build electric vehicles to address societal challenges. Within a month, we have saved over one million naira in transportation fares, easing the transport mode of our locals.
“As an innovator, I will call on youths to harness the opportunities in tech and build a problem solving invention because problems are opportunities”.
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A software engineer, Bello Sani, explained that technology is the future and there is a huge market for software developers, and the stakeholders and government should provide the youths with resources to practise, learn, and relearn.
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Sani noted that, “In technology, things move very quickly, so we must keep up and catch up. You cannot succeed if you do not stay on top of trends. It is therefore imperative for the federal government and stakeholders to exert unrelenting effort in the North as the level of interest among Arewa youths in technology innovations is encouraging.”
Similarly, Maryam Abbass Bichi, a digital marketer, spoke on digital marketing and the response of Arewa youth in small and medium businesses transformation to digital marketing.
She said she has trained more than 2000 people in digital marketing, which has improved their businesses.
She Said, “It is amazing how many people turned up. When I began I didn’t get much response, but when I began to translate my training into local content (Hausa), a lot of people began to participate. Thus, when I became aware that localising awareness would aid digital transformation, I integrated my training and made my own market strategy to help my people and help them take advantage of online trade.”
She further encouraged the youth to delve into digital solutions by localising trade to foster tech inclusion and encourage digital marketing.
The 30 superstars were selected from over 300 nominees by a team of judges led by Dr. Kabir Sufi and made up of scholars, senior journalists, business leaders, and tech icons assembled by the organisers.
