By Frank Momoh
Nigerians have been encouraged to sharpen their skills with relevant knowledge and be digitally creative in proffering indigenous solutions to the country’s challenges to improve their livelihoods and contribute their quota to Nigeria’s digital economy.
The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof Ibrahim Pantami, represented by Head, Corporate Liaison and Advocacy Unit, National Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Mr. Babangida Abdullahi Gilo, re-echoed this at the launch of Rated-Artisan Services Limited; a wholly-owned Nigerian software solutions provider.
While indicating that the initiative underpins the Federal Government’s target of achieving 95% digital literacy by 2030, he applauded the efforts of the Start-up Digital Company for the products which offer an ecosystem that brings ultimate convenience in service delivery with the proprietary intelligent enterprise as well as e-Commerce applications.
“Numerous activities being carried out in this company are no doubt gaining traction, and this contributes in shaping our thinking towards not only maximizing our socio-economic opportunities as a people but also creating a platform for advancing the tech-driven entrepreneurship towards national development.”
The Minister, who described the innovative solutions as timely, sued for more Nigerians to develop ‘crazy ideas’ that will fast track the achievement of a Digital Nigeria.
“Considering the increasing need for stakeholders within the ecosystem to discuss ways to better harness the vast opportunities offered by ICT, our current realities point to the fact that the future of the world economy is digital, and IT in particular has become one of the most talked-about areas by most of the people in our society today… IT is a wide-ranging tool that is already transforming every walk of life. We must therefore ensure that we get the most out of IT while still protecting important human values.”
The Director-General, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa, also represented at the event by the Acting Coordinator of the Office for Nigerian Digital Innovation, Yakubu Musa, reaffirmed that the Agency remains committed to supporting the development of the indigenous solutions that will address the Nation’s prevailing challenges.
“It is often said that it is where there are challenges that you have opportunities, and it is where there are opportunities that wealth is created. Today we are here to celebrate Rated Artisan for identifying a challenge and exploring the opportunities presented by the challenge to create wealth for Nigerians.”
He expressed belief that it will create an enabling environment for growth, attraction, and protection of investments in startups.
“There is a need to have specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, time-bound and objectives and an implementation structure that will ensure the successful implementation of these programs and initiatives.”
Earlier, the Managing Director, Rated Artisan Services limited, Dr. Inya-Agha Gabriel, while presenting the Al-Driven Mobile Applications, said the innovative solutions including Rated Artisan, Rated Academy-, Banga and Ecoforce are structured for businesses to meet the growing demands in today’s digitally advanced business environment.
Other speakers who added their voices in appreciating the creative work commended the Federal Government for the trajectory of the Information Communications Technology (ICT) sector.
They further expressed confidence in NITDA’s capability to effectively execute its role through regulatory standards, guidelines, and policies which they said would be pivotal in digitally moving the country forward.
