By Emma Okonji
The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Pantami, has charged young innovators to come up with disruptive technology and crazy ideas that would completely change the way we live in Nigeria.
He stated this during the presentation of the Young Innovators tag “Seeds for the Future” by the Managing Director, Huawei Technologies Nigeria Limited, Mr. Zhang Lulu, in Abuja, recently.
The minister urged the innovators to explore emerging technology and come up with disruptive technology and build applications that would completely change the way we live and interact with one another.
Pantami, reiterated that the expectation of the federal government was for the young innovators to come back from the scheme to create jobs as digital economy has potential to lift millions of Nigerians out of poverty.
“As potential digital personality, you must think about being potential employers. Come up with big ideas as you become potential employers instead of job seekers.
“Each and every one of you should think of employing 50,000 people in a few years,” Pantami told the young innovators.
Pantami added: “In the next few years most probably one may not need to travel to India, Egypt, USA or UK for medical attention or surgery, Surgery can be conducted by using 5G and through artificial intelligence”.
He urged them to focus more on emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, robotic, cloud computing, quantum computing, mega storages, internet of things, visual reality and augmented reality.
The Minister thanked the Huawei Technologies for keying-in to the capacity building of the young innovators in the country and urged them to focus on the hands-on training and bridge the gap between the academia and the industry.
The Managing Director, Huawei Technologies Nigeria Limited, Mr. Zhang Lulu while presenting the students from different institutions in Nigeria noted that Huawei has been investing in digital skills in Nigeria and had implemented various programms in the country.
He said during the young innovators visit to China, they would be able to attend hands-on trainings at the Huawei’s world class labs, learn the latest trends happening in the industry and exchange ideas with the experts from around the world at their global headquarters in China.
The Young Innovators selected from different Universities were Ugwu Obinna, University of Ibadan; Udohi Young, Covenant University; Akingbola Oluwapemisin, Univeristy of Ibadan; Onuora Chiamaka, University of Lagos; Ihenyen Joy, Igbinedion University and Fatima Rabiu, Ahmadu Bello University Others are Kolade Joseph, Cloud Exchange Technical School; David Kemdirim, University of Port Harcourt; Abdussamad Musa and Abdulrahman Aliyu, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University.
