The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) of the Federal Government of Nigeria has made grand plans to create research facilities devoted to cutting-edge technologies.
This was declared at the inauguration of the IoT West Africa Conference in Lagos by NITDA Director General Kashifu Inuwa, who was accompanied by Aristotle Onumo, Director of Corporate Planning & Strategy.
According to him, the programme supports the agency’s objective of creating a strong ecosystem for technology research.
These centres will focus on the six main areas of emerging technologies to promote innovation and technological advancement across the country.
The technologies include, but are not limited to, blockchain, Internet of Things, and Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Through this programme, Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones will see increased innovation and an improved technology environment.
Inuwa emphasised the agency’s contribution to talent development by endorsing the federal government’s 3MTT initiative.
The 3MTT plan, which was introduced in November 2023 by Bosun Tijani, Minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, is to train three million technical talent under the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation & Digital Economy (FMCIDE) by 2027.
“We are establishing a special-purpose vehicle that is going to look into these key areas and also establish research centres across the six geo-political zones of Nigeria,” said Inuwa.
The conference’s organisers claim that as data centre investments rise, Nigeria’s Internet of Things (IoT) sector is expanding and that their goal was to draw in investors to help local businesses create cutting-edge products in emerging technologies.
“We want to encourage development and have innovation sandboxes where we can support and encourage those who have ideas to come up with use cases,” Inuwa explained.
We earlier reported that a broad national project to improve digital literacy has been initiated by NITDA in collaboration with the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), the Ministry of Youth and Sports Development, and other partners.
