The Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Mal. Kashifu Inuwa has expressed delight over Nigeria’s preparation for this year’s Gulf Information Technology Exhibition and Expo, (GITEX), saying the annual event remained a veritable platform to showcase Nigerian youths to the world.
Mal. Inuwa who stated this while inaugurating the Local Organising Committee, (LOC) that would ensure a successful outing for Nigeria at the event, believes that Nigeria has become a force to reckon with in the global tech innovations. Thus, GITEX provides a platform to showcase what they can do in the area of tech innovation.
“Nigeria has become a force to reckon with in the global tech innovations. So, GITEX remains one of the veritable platforms for Nigeria to show to the world what her youths are capable of doing in the area of tech innovation,” Inuwa, who was represented by Dr. Aristotle Onuma at the inauguration of the LOC said.
He noted that Nigeria has consistently made an impact at the vent since 2013 as the organiser of the event came to Nigeria to head hunt talents and sponsored four start-ups to the event this year.
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.
Meanwhile, Dr. Aristotle Onuma has charged the committee members to see their nominations as a call to national assignment and a privilege to serve the country in other capacities.
He described the event as a “strategic window” that provides opportunities for exposure to start-ups’ ecosystems 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.”
“Nigeria can maximize the potentials of the event by learning from there and domicile whatever we learned in the country to solve most of our challenges,” he said.
Also, Mr. Segun Oruame of Pinnacle Consulting, a firm that consults for NITDA on the event, expressed delight in the visibility the event has offered Nigeria.
He recalled a memorable event when a Nigerian won the first prize in the 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 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.