By Emma Okonji
Participants at the recently concluded Technology Conference and Expo, known as Techplus have stressed the need for the creation of a more inclusive pedestal that will help build a stronger digital economy in Nigeria and change the development narratives of all parts of the country.
Highlighting the new focus at a pre-event breakfast meeting that brought together government executives, technology experts and other business leaders, the General Manager of Techplus, Eniola Edun, explained that the organisation decided to take an assessment of where they are in the eco-system, and how they can best re-invent themselves.
According to Edun: “We started a journey early this year that is evolving our organization into a platform for tech inclusion, positioning, connecting and enabling innovators in the eco- system for social change.
“We believe we can function as a voice that can project commendable social innovators so that they can attract quality partners and assistance that can get them to next level. We have been leveraging on the goodwill that was built by the brand in the last four years and this journey has led us into discovering a lot of talents outside the concentrated areas of Lagos and Abuja that we will gladly share at this meeting.”
At the event, the story of one of the newly “discovered” talents was from Ahmad Moddibo of The North-East Humanitarian Innovation Hub (NEHIH) where the players are making a difference and finding home-grown tech solutions to humanitarian challenges in the North-East.
In a presentation that evoked massive commendation for Techplus, Moddibo spoke and thereafter presented a documentary that revealed how they identified some priority needs and were able to leverage on technology to create new narratives for many disadvantaged persons in Nigeria’s war-torn North-east region. Another speaker at the breakfast meeting was Silas Adekunle, the young Nigerian engineer, inventor and technology entrepreneur known for creating the world’s first intelligent gaming robot. Adekunle, who was listed among the world’s most revolutionary entrepreneurs for the 2019 One Young World award spoke on Artificial intelligence (AI) and Robotics.
