Zamfara State Government under the leadership of Governor Dauda Lawal, has extended hands of partnership to technology innovators in the areas of security, health and education.
Dr. Habib Abubakar Gajam, the executive secretary, of Zamfara Information Technology Development Agency (ZITDA), said that the Agency, which serves as a clearing house for ICT projects and programmes in the State, is open to partnering with technology ecosystem players to tackle socio-economic issues ravaging the State.
Gajam was speaking through Bilyaminu Ibrahim Gusau, his technical adviser, on Saturday, February 17, 2024, during the United Nations World Summit Award (UN-WSA) Nigeria Youth Ambassadors Conference 2024 and the launch of the InnovationbedAI Career Transformation and Mentorship Product & Services Portal under the theme: Driving Rural Nigeria by Sustainable (AI4Dev) Innovations.
The event which was aimed to showcase the WSA Youth Ambassadors network to the public, as well as launch new initiatives of Programos Foundation, was opened by the President of OCCAM, Architect Pierpaolo Saporito.
OCCAM is the Observatory on Digital Communication, affiliated to the UN ECOSOC since 2005. The President in his opening address invited the government and private sector from Nigeria to the 23rd Infopoverty World Conference, scheduled to take place on April 12, 2024, in a hybrid format at the UN Headquarters in New York.
It was also noted that the Programos Foundation facilitated the participation of the Federal Ministry of Communication, Innovation, and Digital Economy by the former Minister, Prof. Isa Pantami (FNCS) in the 2023 edition, and was ably represented by the Technical Adviser, Dr Femi Adeluyi.
Dr. Vincent Olatunji, the National Commissioner/CEO, Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC), represented by the head of Innovation at the NDPC, Chiderah Ike-Okonkwo showcased Nigeria’s safety landmarks within 2 years.
The NDPC expressed willingness to understand what we do at #InnovationbedAI #Labs and the World Summit Awards process of Innovation tech scouting and promotions.
Leading a delegation for the grand jury session on the WSA 2023 global competitions in India of the WSA Youths Ambassadors for Nigeria Conference.
Emmanuel Amos, Programos Foundation founder had volunteered as the United Nations World Summit Awards National Expert for Nigeria and Country Coordinator for SPACE4ICT – an SDG-Advisor, decision support service consultancy for developing countries and small Islands, initiative with UN World Summit Awards and UN ICT4SIDS respectively.
WSA (World Summit Awards) is a unique awards system, that selects and promotes local digital innovation to improve society.
Combining an ongoing series of international events and activities with a global network of start-ups, social entrepreneurs, mentors, jurors, speakers, experts, government leaders, academia, and civil society, WSA is an international platform for cutting-edge examples of how ICTs can impact society positively.
With 20 years of international experience, WSA is a quality seal for digital content with a societal impact in 182 participating countries.
In what has become an interesting journey for 15 years now, Amos Emmanuel has had to build and nurture a digital ecosystem InnovationbedAI as a vehicle to administer the work role in a manner that compliments the political leadership’s agenda for the good of society.
Amos says:
“#InnovationbedAI #Labs, pioneers a transformative ecosystem that harnesses the power of artificial intelligence and innovation to drive positive change in Nigeria.” he continues, “Our mission is to nurture diverse talent, catalyze small and medium enterprise creation, and provide cutting-edge AI consultancy services through young people in Africa. Through collaboration, education, and innovation, we aim to propel Nigeria and indeed Africa towards a prosperous and technologically advanced future.
To empower individuals and businesses in Nigeria through the strategic application of artificial intelligence and innovation. We foster diverse career transformation, facilitate the creation of sustainable small and medium enterprises, and establish a dynamic AI consultancy services marketplace. Our mission is to bridge the gap between potential and opportunity, igniting a wave of creativity and progress in the Nigerian landscape.”
And Zamfara happens to be one of the States where some of the youth ambassadors have emerged. In 2023, Fauzudeen Mahmoud from Zamfara state, the innovator for ZamTracka – a transparency and Open Government and Citizens Engagements project, won the prestigious WSA Awards and was celebrated among other winners at the congress in Puebla, Mexico City. Two other winners from Edo and Lagos state respectively: Labohack, Sqooks also represented Nigeria and the Winners Congress.
Speaking in that line, Gajam said ZITDA is working with the State Executive on technology development legislation that will focus on digital rescue missions with key pillars:
- Literacy/skills education,
- E-Government,
- Human Capital Development
We are ready to partner with technology ecosystem players in these areas. We understand that technology evolves every second these days. The advent of machine learning, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, transition from Web2 to Web3, has given us hope and platforms to innovate. For instance, we want our girls to participate in ICT challenges and emerge as champions. We might be late, but we can do it. We need every support we can get.
“We believe UN WSA and Programos Foundation and the body of youth ambassadors network can be our partners to leapfrog our technology ecosystem and energize our youth/innovators in the area of security, e-learning, and health tech, amongst others”, the ZITDA boss said.
He added that security has been a major issue in the State for some time now hence the present government of Governor Dauda Lawal has taken steps to tackle it among other socio-economic challenges.
Earlier, Mr Amos said that the InnovationbedAI Labs: Career Transformation and Mentorship for Digital Product & Services Innovation Portal will emphasize innovations development capacity in key areas among youths in tertiary institutions across the country in rural farming, healthcare, security/safety, green energy, eCommerce, eLearning & education, smart-settlement, open government, inclusion & empowerment.
He shared a slogan for the #InnovationbedAI as ‘Giving power to the creative minds leveraging advancements in AI and ML’
He said that through the pre-conference, InnovationbedAI aimed to showcase its ICT Village Model for Nigerian Youths by identifying pilot villages to apply digital innovations to bridge the gaps.
Impressed by the speakers’ devotion to helping the African youth to innovate especially in Nigeria, Professor Amjad Umar, the lead Architect of the UN ICT4SIDS initiative, admitted to having worked with Programos Foundation boss on the UN ICT4SIDS (SPACE4ICT – Computer-Aided Planning for Digital Transformation Programme) in Working Group for more than 12 years, said, “What Programos is doing with its InnovationbedAI Initiative is important to us in the education and entrepreneurship space for the African regions.
“We are very interested in how digital transformation can be done and replicated in developing countries and small islands without failure. Therefore, Programos Foundation has done noble work and we are still interested in working with Amos’ InnovationbedAI Incubation programme to link startups to international partners and assist them to scale”.
Prof Amjad Umar presented on The ICT4SIDS Partnership, expressing the Platform for Rapid Digital Capacity Building of SIDS in developing countries.
The objective of the Global ICT4SIDS Center is to support smart hubs that provide inexpensive and highly specialized community services in health, education, public safety, public welfare, and decision support.
These hubs are designed to collaborate across communities for rapid regional transformation and thus lead to the rapid adoption of #SmartGlobalVillage as a Powerful capacity-building platform based on research, practice, and teaching that has produced eFactory for Building Smart Hubs: A Smart Global Village for implementation of SDGs, An Education and Advising Practice for SIDS, A Lab, and Sandbox for Experimentation.
Prof Amjad Umar who is also the Director of Graduate Programmes at Harrisburg University of Science and Technology in the US also spoke about the partnership with Programos Foundation’s #InnovationbedAI #Labs for the new Harrisburg University campus in Dubai, UAE. The benefits of learning in HU@Dubai are enormous: Easy Entry Visa, Hybrid (online, on-site), Scholarship for 50% of US tuition in Dubai, Possibility to work and study, and Transition Paths, through CITO.
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The immediate past Managing Director/CEO of Wemabank Plc, Mr Ademola Adebise shared his experiences with the youths. He was also a winner of the WSA National Nominee for Nigeria under the Business and Commerce category by Wemabank’s ALAT.ng digital banking revolution product.
David Atabo – The Coordinator, of Youth Ambassador Network, Africa remarked on the NDPC’s presentation recommending an up-to-date preparation to keep Nigeria’s privacy and protection concerns safe from emerging digital threats.
Jide Awe, the founder of Jidaw Systems, and a pioneer National Pre-Selection Committee Member (The WSANigeria Jury) appointed by the national Expert was happy to see consistency in the WSA process in Nigeria, applauding the WSA National Expert, Amos Emmanuel, for the pedigree consolidated for the Nigerian region in the global competition since 2009;
Isaac Udotong – a Global AI and Blockchain Consultant, Former Consultant at NASA, US, and Mentor, Fireflies Notetaker.
Peter Oluka, Editor of Techeconomy, was thrilled at the quality of the event content from start to finish as is always the case for any past Programos event. He also shares the partnership between Programos Foundation and Techconomy which fuses the WSANigeria programmes into their annual Tech events.
Arslan Dawood – is a digital marketing guru from Pakistan and shared plans to partner Programos on the Contents of the InnovationbedAI Labs Portal opening soon.
Other eminent dignitaries include:
Mr. Anayo Agu, Co-founder, Seeds of Greatness Institute, and former Senior Commercial Specialist, American Embassy, Lagos;
Olufemi Olapegba – MD SmartHealth, United Kingdom who incidentally was Programos Foundation incubated beneficiary also shared his exploits with the WSA Youth Ambassadors.
Justina Omenihu, a member of the youth ambassador network for Africa, described WSA Nigeria as vibrant and encouraged stakeholders in attendance to assist the ecosystem to outgrow its projections.
She also charged young innovators with volunteerism, stressing that “innovators need to focus on why they are innovating despite the present economic challenges.”
Adekunle Taiwo – a Senior Technologist, Computer Engineering Department, at NILE UNIVERSITY of Nigeria, Abuja, is another product of Programos Foundation’s past incubation programmes beneficiary and has spoken so well of the Programos Foundation innovation vineyard in Nigeria for decades.
The InnovationbedAI Labs – The main goal is to provide students with training in artificial intelligence and machine learning. Our program offers a combination of theoretical knowledge enabling participants from academic backgrounds to utilise AI effectively for greater efficiency. This empowers students to develop ground-breaking ‘services’ and ‘products’ while still in school.
The roll call of some of the dynamic WSA Youth Ambassadors for Nigeria:
On behalf of the WSA Youth Ambassador for Nigeria, Agbona Boluwatife from (Ondo State) – the Head of House #HoH of the WSA Nigeria (InnovationbedAI Incubation) House solicited government support for WSA programmes in Nigeria. The gallery of the Ambassadors listed as Oluwatowo Moses Amos, ED, Programos Foundation, Prince Nyong Inyang – The Depuy headOfHouse, #DHoH (Cross River), Idris Mubarak (Kogi), Abdullahi Abubakar (Zamfara), Ibrahim Albashir Ishaq (Borno), Bishio Joan Felix (Kaduna), Oyindamola Osinubi (Ogun) Ifeoluwa David Omosowoeni (Ondo), Hayatudeen Mustapha(Oyo), Henry Lamba Danwawo (Kaduna), Motunrayo Fatoke (Osun), Queenesther Michael Hogan (Cross River), Utenwo-ojo Abraham(Kogi), Williams Okina (Cross river), Michael Sunmoni (Lagos), Awokunle Olayinka Tope (Osun), Daniel Adeyemi daniel(Kwara), Johnson Samuel Olamilekan (Ogun), Tolani Olawore (Osun), Demi Val-Ugboma (Rivers), Israel Oyenigbehin (Ondo), Eruchie Esther Chinenye (Enugu), Amedu Martha Omoye (Anambra), Daniels Sheila (Oyo), and Uthman Alimot (Lagos).
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