Mr Andrew David Adejo, Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, on Tuesday during a robotics project presentation by the Federal Government Girls College Sagamu, Ogun State (FGGC Sagamu) at the Ministry’s head office in Abuja.

Dr. Muyibat Adenike Olodo, the Director and Principal of FGGC, Sagamu, led the College’s robotics team consisting of some students and members of staff who are the coaches to present an innovation of the College, a humanoid, named Okikiola Sagamu to the Permanent Secretary.

The Artificial Intelligence (AI) built by the students could walk around, recognise faces, shake hands and exchange pleasantries among others.

Brief Demo:

Permanent Secretary, Andrew Adejo who was impressed by the innovation of the students, said he was not surprised because the Federal Government Colleges (Unity Schools) remain the best in Nigeria.

He, however, noted that as a part initiative to “catch them young”, NERDC should work to integrate coding, robotics, and AI into the basic education curriculum.

Adejo also charged the students and unity schools to move further by designing AI that could take orders and serve food in restaurants, assuring them that government would be ready to support such innovation.

Earlier, Dr. Muyibat Adenike Olodo, the Director and Principal of FGGC, Sagamu, said efforts at exposing the students and their coaches to the current trend in the world of technology, that is, coding, AI, machine learning and robotics were sowing good seeds in Federal Unity Colleges (FUCs).

She commended the founder of Coderina Education and Technology Foundation, Mr Olajide Ademola Ajayi for his mentorship and technical assistance to the team.

One of the students that participated in the Robotic project, Esther Ogunnaike, said they were inspired by the Principal of the College, Dr Olodo, who also ensured that a robotics centre was established in the school last year before the commencement of the project.

“It was actually the vision of our Principal. She established a robotics centre for this very project. She wanted us to build a robot that will be able to recognize faces, move its neck, and eyes, pick up objects we need to use in the classroom and so on. We are happy because we should be able to move with the world. The world is moving with technological advancement, so, Nigeria cannot be left behind,” she said.

She called on the Federal Government to support innovation in schools, saying with more resources the team would be able to produce a better version than what Okikiola Sagamu that was presented to the ministry.

FGGC Sagamu is one of the schools adopted by Coderina to ensure that students are exposed to robotics and other AI related engineering.

Kashifu Inuwa, Director General and CEO of NITDA has said the Agency is leaving no stone unturned in the implementation processes of the its Strategic RoadMap and Action Plan (SRAP 2021-2024).

He gave this hint during a virtual session with CDA Lead for Africa, Clayton Naidoo.

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He said that NITDA has continued to collaborate with CISCO since 2019 when an MOU was signed, to build an incubation center that will foster digital skills and job creation for Nigerian Citizens.

Saddled with the task of leveraging on the opportunities available to Startups in facilitating a collaboration with CISCO, the NITDA Director General, today, led some members of his team to the Sharp Sharp Startup Company, one of the winners during the 2022 Gulf International Technology Exhibition (GITEX) in Dubai, on facility tour with the aim of facilitating collaboration between the startup and CISCO.

CISCO is a worldwide leader in technology that powers the Internet with focus on networking, collaboration solutions, security solutions, wireless and mobility, data center, IoT, video, analytics, and software solutions. Partnership and collaboration with stakeholders, throughout value chain, and across the industry, allows NITDA to multiply its efforts and scale her impact.

In a similar vein, the NITDA boss, in company of Dr Yau Isa Garba, the Coordinator of the National Center for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics NCAIR,  (A subsidiary of NITDA), also did a facility tour of the Uniccon Group of Companies Ltd, the Startup Company that built “Omeife” the first African Robot.

The NITDA boss recounted that during the unveiling of “Omeife” last December to the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, the Hon. Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof. Isa Ali Ibrahim (Pantami), had encouraged NITDA to work with Uniccon Group on how to commercialise “Omeife”.

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“We are willing to sign an MOU with Uniccon to infuse Omeife into our already established learning models if it has the ability to communicate in four identified Nigerian languages, namely, Igbo, Hausa, Yoruba and Pidgin English, towards achieving 95% digital literacy in Nigeria by year 2030. This will, in turn, enable the citizens employ digital devices for economic purposes’’, he concluded.