Peter Uzoho
The Zone Tech Park is seeking to turn the economy around using a pool of technological capabilities in Nigeria to address the challenges currently plaguing the economy.
According to the company, work is currently in top gear at its lab in Gbagada, Lagos, in preparation for the demonstration of its offerings and the showcasing of startups and different players in the entire technology value chain which holds June 28.
The park is an economic hot spot where new technologies germinate at an astounding rate and where pools of capital, expertise, and talent foster the development of new industries and new ways of doing business.
Its innovation-led approach intends to help individuals, private and public enterprises develop and deliver disruptive innovations, and scale them faster, and promises to help corporations innovate like start-ups and help start-ups scale to become corporations, from research, ventures, educational programs, studio, innovation centres and events.
The innovative organisation has a vision that is hinged on the massive transformative purpose of changing the status quo and helping individuals and businesses in Nigeria, and ultimately Africa realise their full potentials through education, venture building, and strategic enterprise support.
Programme Director, The Zone Tech Park, Mr Taiwo Oyewole, said: “At the core of what we do is the economy and social impact – it’s important for us. If there’s no value exchange the economy can’t grow well on itself. So, we are bent on creating platform where startups and corporates will be able to innovate.
“There is something we say: we help corporations innovate like startups and help startups scale to become corporations. So it is a marriage of the two. The startups have their own strengths: they have got the fresh ideas; they have got the skill sets required for today’s business, today’s world. They are young, they are agile, they have got the energy but a lot of them struggle in the area of capital, whether from the revenue standpoint or from amazing cash to run the operations. The established corporates on the other hand have access to capital; they have access to the market … but they also struggle to innovate.
He said the company’s innovation lab is spread along 20 thematic interest areas range from education to agriculture, food security, healthcare, security, manufacturing, retail, customer service, supply chain management, energy and power, and things around artificial intelligence and the internet.
“We are tired of the same old thing. What we are experiencing are more around systemic failure and those systemic failures come from breakdown in process and breakdown in knowledge gap, and several other factors. So we are hoping to be able to change that, bring a better fresh air to the systems, start changing the perception of Nigerians outside the country and even the world about the reputation of the country.â€
Also in its effort to reach out to tech startups in the country, the company embarked on tour of some areas in the South-west of the country including Otta, Abeokuta, Akure, Ile-Ife and Lagos to know the tech happenings in those areas and to intimate them on the project.
Fidelity Bank’s Back-To-School Train Made History in Edo
It was indeed celebration galore for staff and pupils of Egwuare Primary School, Uromi in Edo State as Fidelity Bank Plc provided them with educational supplies, including computer systems, branded school bags, sandals, books and other writing materials to support learning. The Bank said its decision to embark on this initiative was borne out of the need to make life easier for students. The project tagged ‘Back to School’, was initiated and implemented by staff of Uromi Branch under the auspices of the Fidelity Helping Hands Programme (FHHP).
The Bank’s intervention in the education sector particularly its Back-To-School project has received glowing commendations from various quarters. His Royal Highness, Solomon Izuware Ojeaga, The Onogie of Ujiogba Kingdom, in his remarks commended the Bank for implementing projects that enhance the quality and standard of education in the country.
“Our Back-to-School initiative has indeed touched the lives of Nigerian students across the country, particularly in the Internally Displaced Peoples (IDP) Camps in Benin, Yola and Maiduguri respectivelyâ€.
Speaking at the handover ceremony, Regional Bank Head, (RBH) Midwest 1, Ovie Mukoro, who stressed the importance of education as a veritable tool for national development, stated that the Bank is a staunch advocate of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
Receiving the materials, Head Teacher, Egwuare Primary School, Uromi, Philomena Okojie expressed utmost happiness at the gesture while urging other private organisation to borrow a leaf from the Bank. Okojie noted that the initiative will bring some measure of relief to parents who cannot afford to purchase necessary educational materials for their wards.
