…Reiterates Agency’s commitment to creating ecosystem for blockchain technology
By Chimezie Godfrey
The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) says it is committed to creating and stimulating the ecosystem for Blockchain technology and indeed Nigerian innovators to thrive.
The Director-General of NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa reiterated the Agency’s stance on emerging technologies during the 2022 Blockchain Developers’ Summit held in Abuja.
While speaking passionately on “Blockchain Technology Supports Digital Transformation and will facilitate the Development of Nigeria into a Digital Economy” to the over one thousand five hundred participants, Inuwa enumerated the multiple benefits and prospects of the tech.
The NITDA DG highlighted “trust” as one of the critical components of Blockchain.
“There are a lot of opportunities in Blockchain and it is critical in every business”, he noted.
The DG encouraged the participants who were mostly Youth Corp Members to upscale their talents and contribute their quota towards nation building.
“Talent is the human component of technology. When you talk about any innovations, especially Blockchain and emerging technologies, it is about the new solutions one is bringing onboard; so you need to task yourself to know which solutions or offerings the industry requires”, Inuwa advised.
Inuwa who stressed the fact that anybody can be an innovator or entrepreneur, irrespective of their academic standing, religion, and ethnic group, as innovative ideas cannot be monopolized, averred that the time for Nigerian youths to leverage on the growing digital sector to tackle the myriad of challenges facing the nation is now.
“Innovation is beyond invention, it needs to get to the point of commercialization. Untill you can pitch your idea to someone to pay for your solutions, the innovation would sadly only be just an idea. So, we are building an ecosystem that will enable you to hatch your ideas from conception to realization”, the DG said.
The NITDA Boss also emphasised on the need for the participants to have venture capitalists who would invest in their innovative ideas.
He further noted that although the President Muhammadu Buhari’s Administration has exhibited a strong political will to continually make the right policies and create an enabling environment for tech innovation ecosystem to suceed, the Federal Government however, cannot possibly give out grants or seed funds to everyone at the same time, hence, the need for them to engage with both local and International. investors.
Inuwa recalled that in 2019, President Muhammadu Buhari renamed and expanded the mandate of the Ministry to cover digital economy which has necessitated the now Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy to create value, wealth and prosperity via the digital economy.
