By Dwelleth Morountodun
For Nigeria’s Information Technology/ICT sector, it was an epoch-making day marked with glee and an atmosphere of excitement that Nigeria’s first digital Fabrication Laboratory: (ABUJA FABLAB 1.0) was commissioned and unveiled.
The dateline Friday 20, May 2022 to the amazement of Nigerians from across different strata at the National Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (NCAIR), in Wuye District, an emerging upscale business and residential centre in Abuja.
Speaking at the commissioning, the Director General, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Mallam Kashifu Inuwa, underscores that Nigeria can only be said to be a knowledge-based economy if we (Nigerians) produced what we consumed.
He reiterated that the Federal Government is deploying the lab facilities to assist and help Nigerians ideate and prototype anything that they can think of, explaining further that any startup or individual with an idea can come to the lab to turn his idea into reality.
He said: “With this lab, you can cut iron, wood and you can do electronic designs, I hereby challenge our NYSC members, our interns and staff to come out with this lab.
“By making use of this lab, you can create jobs for yourself and for others and therefore reduce Nigeria’s unemployment, adding, as we commission this lab today, we are going to open it every Nigeria whether you are a staff of NITDA or not irrespective of where you are in Nigeria. You can conceptualise and prototype your idea here.
“The Fab Academy that is connected and spread across the world would help in solving the manpower challenge as it will assist in empowering the trainers.”
While answering reporters’ question on insecurity after the inspection of the digital facilities, again, he was emphatic that digital Fabrication Laboratory (Fab Lab 01 Abuja) can be used to fabricate fabricate Drones, Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC)/Reconnaissance Vehicle that can detect (Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) etc. This can help us to fabricate a lot of Information Technology (IT) equipment that can be used to improve our security and defence architecture, he added.
On replication of the lab across the country, Inuwa, said: “This is a pilot scheme, and this is why we called it Abuja 1.0, meaning that we can have more of this can facility in Abuja and we can extend it to other parts of the country. And as you are aware, we already have IT hubs and innovation labs across the country and so we are going to upgrade and equip them with this kind of state-of-the-art facility as well and very soon.”
Asked on qualification to access to the lab, the DG stressed that it is open and accessible to every Nigerian, irrespective of status to start-ups, innovators, researchers and even students of any cadre can come here to do whatever they want to do.
On what informed Federal Government decision on the deployment, he attributed it to President Muhammadu Buhari’s tenacity as exemplified through the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof. Ibrahim Pantami, to the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), the agency at the forefront of Nigeria’s digital drive and IT regulator to implement the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS).
According to him, the crux and the main objective of this is to make Nigeria a knowledge-based economy, reinforcing that as you are also aware Nigeria can only be knowledge-based economy through using and deploying this kind of equipment where Nigerians can come into this NCAIR centre, ideate, design and prototype anything that they can think of to improve our living standard and make us less dependent on foreigners.
The question was asked whether Nigeria can make money from investing in digital facilities, he answered: “One of the major challenges facing our youths especially our start-ups is that if they have an idea especially on design, they cannot fabricate it in the country.
“With the commencement of this kind of digital equipment they can design their own prototype. At the centre, they can ideate, design and print it here, we have 3D printers and 3D scanners etc you can scan a 3D equipment, modify it and even add things to it and print it as 3D format.
“For instance, if you look at all the furniture at the centre here, they were fabricated in this lab. You can fabricate wood, metal, and rubber and anything that you can think of and so anything that you see here is fabricated here.”
To address the likelihood of human capacity at the lab, he said Fablab has a Foundation and Fab academy which is under Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), in the U.S to stem the tide.
“This lab has already joined the Fab academy. We are going to train our people here remotely and whoever that we train here will be part of the Fab network so that they can also train other facilitators and they can set the facility as well.
“And also, most of the consumable books and literature are things that you can get locally here in Nigeria. Here at the centre, it can provide an opportunity to collaborate with another Fab lab around the globe. Students can come in here and if you don’t have an office space and you have an idea, we can provide an office space here for you.
Also in his remark, the installer of the facilities, Mr. Abubakar Abdullahi Adam, a renowned Artificial Intelligent expert, acknowledged that the Abuja Fablab 01, equipment are of state-of-the-art equipment, explaining that the urge for startup to travel outside Nigeria to conceptualise or prototype their innovations will be drastically reduced as such equipment are available in Nigeria.
Adam said: “We have laser cutter and high precision machines and we have an oven for melting metals, we have saw-machines and a whole lot of other machines including the electronic web based and they can be used for making anything.
“For instance, if I want to control a system to control the lightning in my home automatically through my phone or other device or voice or fingerprint, I can come with that idea and model it with the help of the instructors here and then print the parts and make the electronic circuit box, put them together and then install it in my home etc, etc and that is just what I want.
“So, basically anything that you think of that you want to make use of this facility to make them. For instance, if I want to make housing with the device that I make I can use a laser cutter to cut the parts and do some 3D printing and then assemble the box anyhow and put the electronics in the box. I can then use the electronic machine and the computer to do all the things that I need in the box. It is basically tools that can do almost anything.”
