The anticipated Nigerian Tech Summit is finally here. Opening the event with the Opening Remarks is Staniel Tetteh. The theme for this year’s event is “Nigeria: Accelerating Innovation, Investment, and Industry Disruption”.
Giving reasons why the Nigerian Tech Summit chose the topic, Tetteh said,
“To succeed and speed up the innovative process, the organization needs to embrace creative thinking. We feel there is a need to harness the imaginations and ideas of employees which will create cultures that encourages creativity and imaginative thinking in the workplace”.
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First Panelists
The topic discussed in the 1st panelist session of the Nigeria Tech Summit was “The Tech Ecosystem of the Future – The Role of Digital Technologies”. This was moderated by Chioma Omolaye, TV Host, of The Pioneer STEM show.
Panelists:
- Fortune Ikechi: Developer Relations Engineer, Storyblok
- May-May Ogoigbe: Xlobal Marketing & Communications Executive
- Adaobi Oni-Egboma: Senior Associate, Digital Regulations, Stears
- Kingsley Udeagha Power Platform Developer, Sterling Bank
Nigeria Tech Summit:
How do you perceive the state of the tech ecosystem in Nigeria, and what her organization is currently doing to contribute to that space?
When asked, Xlobal Marketing & Communications Executive, May-May Ogoigbe said,
“Currently, I foresee that there need to be an education and personal development for us to drive technological adoption at the grassroots level. Technology is here to make our lives easy, technology is here to make our work easy, not necessarily take our jobs. It is here to impact the way we live”
Speaking further, she made reference to fintech, edutech, and tech startups and how they make use of technology to get to their customers/target audience.
Ogoigbe added that technology is here to stay although it is still at an early stage and there will be mistakes, layoffs, and issues, it will get to a stable point of adoption soon.
On how her organization is currently doing to contribute to that space, she said,
“With their newly launched SME Growth Lab, they are reaching out to entrepreneurs who would normally not have access to education and personal development.”
This means that wherever they are and whatever business they do, they can come to have access to education/seminars to up their skills.
Udeagha Kingsley when asked said the technology has gotten so advanced that the way things are done will surely have to change. Although many people are scared of their jobs being taken from them, if you know your job, your job will not be taken from you. In his words, he said,
“He said will job take your job? Most definitely. Will it allow you to do great and better jobs? Definitely.”
Relating it to his company, he said Sterling Bank is giving a great avenue to upscale your skills. No matter the skills you are trying to learn, the bank has so many resources and avenues to get that done. He added that the financial institution provides business owners and students with new skills that can help them build a better future.
To Adaobi Oni-Egboma, the Senior Associate of Digital Regulations, Stears,
“Stears has been filling the data gap in Nigeria. The most important thing is understanding the regulatory landscape and the impact that it has on the tech ecosystem. Irrespective of what we want to do and how it is going to develop, if the regulatory system is faulty, or does not have the requirement for transparency, then we will see that space struggle.
Speaking on her company’s contributions, she said they are engaging a lot of public and private stakeholders organization through our PODEX. She said they have recently had one on digital regulatory convergence where we spoke to private stakeholders and imported stakeholders such as CBN, SEC, and so on.
“We did that to understand how regulations are made, what are their gaps, what are their duplications. That way, we have people especially people in the private stakeholder operating within the space having the opportunity to discuss and air their grievances.”
She concluded by saying that there are lots of skills in the tech ecosystem, but the major problem is procreation and utilizing efficiently. So tech is having so many discussions to make sure the tech ecosystem is functional.
Finally speaking on this, Fortune Ikechi Developer Relations Engineer, Storyblok said,
“There is an increase of people especially young people who can provide a stable and functional system. The ecosystem here is getting matured. For it to fully mature into its place, we need more community (people who are building, founders, and so on)”.
“So the only way an ecosystem can grow is by lessons and lessons is from experiences. So organizing a more stable and organized community will help the ecosystem be in a much better place.”
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