By Chimezie Godfrey
As part of efforts to commence preparation in earnest for Nigeria’s participation at the Gulf Information Technology Exhibition and Expo, (GITEX) an annual consumer computer and electronics trade show, exhibition, and conference that takes place in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, the National Information Technology Development Agency,, (NITDA) has inaugurated the Local Organising Committee, (LOC) that would ensure a successful outing for Nigeria at the event.
NITDA has been coordinating Nigeria’s pavilion at the event since 2013 and this year’s edition is scheduled to take place from 10th to 14th October, 2022.
The representative of NITDA’s Director General, Kashifu Inuwa, Dr. Aristotle Onuma while inaugurating the committee charged the members to see their nominations as a call to national assignment and a privileged to serve the country in another capacities.
He maintained that GITEX remains a veritable platform for Nigeria to show to the world what her youths are capable of doing in the area of tech innovation, noting that the nation has become a force to reckon with in the global tech innovations.
He said, “I think we have made our impacts felt at the event because the organiser of the event came to Nigeria to head hunt talents. They are sponsoring four of our start-ups to the event this year.
He described the event as a “strategic window” that provides opportunity for exposure to start-ups ecosystem because it opens opportunities for them to meet investors who are interested in their products.
While advising the private sector to take advantage of the opportunity NITDA has to offer by subscribing, partaking and taking ownership of the event, he reiterated that “Nigeria has a lot to learn from the technology show.”
He said, “Nigeria can maximize the potentials of the event by learning from there and domicile whatever we learnt in the country to solve most of our challenges.
Also in his presentation, Mr. Segun Oruame of Pinnacle Consulting, a firm that consults for NITDA on the event, expressed delight for the visibility the event has offered Nigeria.
He recalled a memorable event when a Nigerian won first price in Artificial Intelligence category in 2019.
He disclosed that GITEX 2022 is six events in one. According to him, these include the AI Conference, North Stars (Global Future Stars), Future Blockchain Summit, Fintech Surge, Tech Marketing Mania, and Global DevSlam.
He further added that Conference would discuss topics on The Rise of Predictive Clouds, Data Ops to Xops, Edge Computing and Business Intelligence Adoption, and Net Greener AI for Data Centers among others.
Members of the Committee were drawn from both the public and private sectors; they include those from the Nigeria Investment Promotion Council (NIPC), Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC), Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), National Data Protection Bureau (NPDB), Cherry Brooks Ltd, Nigeria Computer Society (NCS), Smartweb, and Domineum Blockchain Solutions Ltd among others.
