The Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Mal. Kashifu Inuwa has promised that the Federal Government will partner with Africa Creative Market to train them on how to use emerging technologies.
Mal. Inuwa, who gave the promise while giving a Keynote Address on “The Importance of Tech in the Creative Industry”, at the Africa Creative Market (ACM) event in Lagos, noted that this is necessary in order to identify and build the teeming talents in Nigeria’s creative industry, create talents and boost the region’s creative capabilities as well as strategically place it at the forefront of technologically driven business in the African continent.
He believes that emerging technologies are disrupting the way humans produce, distribute and consume content and that the creator of content remains central to everything.
“We are partnering with ACM after this Summit to train you on Metaverse, Artificial intelligence, Blockchain and many more. We are identifying people that need the training and we will get the best trainers in the world to come and train the trainers,” he noted.
The DG affirmed that Federal Government through NITDA is ready to partner with ACM to create talents and train them on how to use emerging technologies to excel and thrive in all they do, and plans are already underway to train one million app developers in the next 18 months.
The DG challenged African creatives to be part of the crop of people who will create Metaverse, as the days of playing the catch-up game by Africa are over.
He said, “the creation of Metaverse will help achieve three things. Firstly, it will ensure ownership and protect copyright. Before now, you can do your work and someone can take it and share it online without even making reference to the owner of that content at all. But emerging technologies such as Blockchain, NFT, etc, it will help you to be recognized for your work. If anyone buys that work or shares, he will see the owner of the work”.
“Secondly, it will create a source of income for you. Unlike before, well, I can see even now in the most part of the world, when an artwork is created, they sell it to one person and that’s it. But with technology, you can earn from every sale; with NFT, you can collect royalties, whenever your product sells in the market you will get some percentage from it, and thirdly, it will take you to the global stage,” Inuwa maintained.