Kashifu Inuwa, the Director-General of NITDA, reiterated the Agency’s stance on emerging technologies during the 2022 Blockchain Developers’ Summit held in Abuja.

While speaking passionately on “Blockchain Technology Supports Digital Transformation and will facilitate the Development of Nigeria into a Digital Economy” to the over one thousand five hundred participants, Inuwa enumerated the multiple benefits and prospects of the tech.

The NITDA DG highlighted “trust” as one of  the critical components of  Blockchain.

“There are a lot of opportunities in Blockchain and it is critical in every business”, he noted.

The DG encouraged the participants who were mostly Youth Corp Members to upscale their talents and contribute their quota towards nation building.

“Talent is the human component of technology. When you talk about any innovations, especially Blockchain and emerging technologies, it is about the new solutions one is bringing onboard; so you need to task yourself to know which solutions or offerings the industry requires”, Inuwa advised.

Inuwa who stressed the fact that anybody can be an innovator or entrepreneur, irrespective of their academic standing, religion, and ethnic group, as innovative ideas cannot be monopolized, averred that the time for Nigerian youths to leverage on the growing digital sector to tackle the myriad of challenges facing the nation is now.

“Innovation is beyond invention, it needs to get to the point of commercialization. Untill you can pitch your idea to someone to pay for your solutions, the innovation would sadly only be just an idea. So, we are building an ecosystem that will enable you to hatch your ideas from conception to realization”, the DG said.

The NITDA Boss also emphasised on the need for the participants to have venture capitalists who would invest in their innovative ideas.

He further noted that although the President Muhammadu Buhari’s Administration has exhibited a strong political will to continually make the right policies and create an enabling environment for tech innovation ecosystem to suceed, the Federal Government however, cannot possibly give out grants or seed funds to everyone at the same time, hence, the need for them to engage with both local and International. investors.

Inuwa recalled that in 2019, President Muhammadu Buhari renamed and expanded the mandate of the Ministry to cover digital economy which has necessitated the now Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy to create value, wealth and prosperity via the digital economy.

The DG again recalled that in the same year, the President unveiled the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS) for a Digital Nigeria which was formulated by the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof. Isa Ali Pantami.

The policy, he affirmed has eight pillars, one of which is Digital Society and Emerging Technologies; an apparently related subject matter: “All paralstatals under the Ministry have keyed into implementing the policy, NITDA inclusive”. Inuwa maintained.

On the part of NITDA, the Director-General seized the opportunity to enlighten the crowd that the Agency had developed a Strategic Roadmap and Action Plan (SRAP) in line with the policy, which has seven pillars with three of them, such as Digital Transformation, Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship, and Emerging Technologies directly addressing the theme of the summit.

“We have so many initiatives: Under “Innovation and Entrepreneurship”, we established the National Centre for Artificial intelligence and Robotics (NCAIR); The Office of the Nigerian Digital Innovation which works with the ecosystem to help come up with policies that will enable you thrive in what you do”, the DG recounted.

The DG also mention other initiatives, including iHatch, Digital Fabrication Lab, TIE (Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship) Support Scheme which he said identifies people with promising ideas and places them in IT hubs across the country for training as well as help turn their ideas into realities.

“We developed the blockchain adoption strategy basically to help stimulate the adoption of blockchain in the country and we have identified six initiatives we are going to implement to achieve that; firstly is to establish the Nigerian Blockchain Consortium which this summit is helping to do that; Secondly, is to strengthen developmental regulation and law; Find focus areas; Promoting Literacy and Blockchain; Digital Innovation Incentivization and the Startup Bill which has passed through the third reading in the National Assembly”, Inuwa added.

Inuwa charged the Youth Corps Members to take advantage of the opportunity and start a business before the end of their service year and possibly always ensure to be among the first movers in any digital related endeavours.

He expressed the hope that participants at the summit which was themed: “Stimulating Blockchain Adoption in Nigeria”, organised by BSV-Blockchain at Base University, and powered by NITDA would make relevant contributions to the Adoption Strategies which he said is dynamic and open to new ideas.

Other speakers including the National coordinator, National Centre for Artificial intelligence and Robotics (NCAIR), Eng. Ya’u Garba and some International Inventors alluded to the promising future that awaits Nigeria upon the successful adoption of the tech.

Meanwhile, the DG also inaugurated the Baze AI/ Blockchain Laboratory in company of some international innovators.

Kashifu Inuwa, the director-general of NITDA, made this assertion while receiving the Executive Secretary, National Commission for Persons With Disabilities, NCPWD, James Lalu, and his team on a courtesy visit to the Agency’s headquarters in Abuja.

Inuwa ostensibly agreed with the description of the Executive Secretary, NCPWD that President Muhammed Buhari, is the friendliest PLWD President since the amalgamation of the nation in 1914, haven passed into law the Discrimination Against Persons with Disabilities (Prohibition) Act, 2018.

The Director-General assured his visitors of NITDA’s continual inclusion of PWD in all its initiatives with a special training session specifically targeted at equipping them with necessary tools, knowledge, and skills on digital transformation.

According to Inuwa, “building a digitally inclusive community requires participation and support from all stakeholders, and partnership with the NCPWD would accelerate the campaign of promoting digital inclusion. We can work together to design special initiatives that would expand the impact of the two organisations.”

“We can organise a challenge where people would come up with ideas to create a disability-friendly application,” this Inuwa added, would be an enabler that would assist in optimizing the best technology to meet identified objectives.”

“Your commission can work towards building a special IT hub while NITDA provides the technical know-how and necessary tools,” suggested Inuwa.

He informed the team that the Agency has opened a link where PLWDs in South-South Zone can register for a five-day empowerment program on digital skills and entrepreneurship at Port Harcourt from the 24th till 28th January 2022.

While responding, the Executive Secretary, James Lalu, haven commended NITDA for its efforts in promoting digital inclusion among PWDs saying, the PWD commission prays for extension of training periods, curriculum, the need for experts and training facilitators at the eLearning Training Centre to work in collaboration with the aim of developing a robust website.

The meeting finally agreed on setting up a team comprising staff of both organisations to work out modalities and possible areas of collaboration.

To this end, NITDA launched the NDPR compliant visitor’s book today in Abuja.

The launching of the NDPR compliant visitor’s booklet was performed by Kashifu Inuwa, the director general of NITDA, shortly after the agency’s first staff meeting of the year 2022 was concluded with all staff in attendance either physically or virtually, for those outside the headquarters on official assignments, zonal offices or on leave.

According to Inuwa; “NITDA is statutorily mandated by the NITDA Act of 2007 to, inter alia; develop regulations for electronic governance and monitor the use of electronic data interchange and other forms of electronic communication transactions as an alternative to paper-based methods in government, commerce, education, the private and public sectors, labour and other fields, where the use of electronic communication may improve the exchange of data and information.”

He said; “recognizing that many public and private bodies have migrated their respective businesses and other information systems online, information solutions in both the private and public sectors now drive service delivery in the country through digital systems. These information systems have thus become critical information infrastructure that must be safeguarded, regulated, and protected against atrocious breaches.”

“Data protection applies to all transactions intended for the processing of Personal Data, notwithstanding how the data processing is being conducted or intended to be conducted in respect of natural persons in Nigeria’’, the Director-General said during the unveiling.

He stated that organisations in Nigeria were caught scrambling to comply with the NDPR when it was launched in 2019.

“Most organisations especially Small and Medium Businesses (SMB) are finding it difficult to comply with some of the basic requirements of the regulation due to financial constraints,” he added.

NITDA Director-General disclosed that a recent study has revealed that many Nigeria public institutions and small business owners are still confused by the rules around data protection and privacy regulations.

“Disturbingly, out of 30 surveyed, 100% confirmed their paper visitors’ books are not confidential and do not protect the visitors’ personal data.

Another 98% admitted they do not dispose of paper visitor books securely and confidentially – leaving the personal data of millions of employees and customers at risk,’’ he added.

He categorically explained that when putting NDPR procedures in place, it’s very likely that many organisations did so with one big misconception that the new law only affects data collected online. The NDPR is technology-agnostic.

It applies to all acts of personal data collection and processing, no matter how and where it takes place, visitor data, employee personal data, etc.

Inuwa submitted that the Data Services Protection Limited (DSPL) patented visitor’s book was selected amongst the most innovative NDPR product at 2021 Privacy Week organised by NITDA.

The visitor’s book pages are duplicates and works by making personal data details on the visitor’s book invisible on the first page while capturing the data on the duplicate page.

This basic but ingenious NDPR complaint visitor’s book is cheap in comparison with the expensive digital visitor’s management solutions.

He, however, noted that the visitor’s book is an addition to the processes of computing the visitor’s data electronically.

Among the highlights of the staff meeting was the presentation of a plaque of recognition to the staff of the quarter Mr. Peter Chucks Emapo, a staff of the e-Government Training Center, Kubwa, Abuja, by the Director-General.

Kashifu Inuwa, the director general of NITDA stated this at the graduation ceremony of 50 children, including 10 Almajiris at the Engausa Global Tech Hub in Kano State.

The young children were subjected to extensive training for two-weeks on innovative digital skills on Computer Networking, Installation of CCTV camera, Graphic Design, innovative creativity, among others.

Engausa Global Tech Hub is an Incubation centre, currently working in collaboration with NITDA in Kano, where young boys are being subjected to entensive training at their early stage, using Hausa language in building their skills on digital technology.

Inuwa said that the centre had in 2021 trained over 700 young boys who were selected from various rural communities in the state, adding that he was very happy that the centre has cooped young Almajiris into the system.

“We have been collaborating with Engausa like the founder said. As a result of intervention we have done for the centre last year, they had multiplied the number of people they trained. In 2021 they trained more than 700 people in this centre as a result of this collaboration,” he said.

The NITDA boss added that the agency have been expanding the collaboration and we are going to do more with them this year to see how we can help the less privileged children to have access to digital technology.

“One of our mandates is to implement the policy under the National Digital Economy Policy for digital Nigeria to logical conclusion in achieving the 95 per cent digital literacy by 2030. You know government cannot do it alone; we need to partner with centres like Engausa to achieve this. So, we are working with them to even expand this centre beyond Kano to other States and also to see how we can equip them more,” DG added.

Explaining further, Kashifu said; “we are also looking at how we can assist the children who have participated in this programme to start their own businesses.”

Earlier, Mr Mustapha Ringim, the founder of the centre, said the centre was out to bridge the productivity gap among the young people, especially those who cannot make it in formal school. “I realised that there are a lot of things that I can offer to the community concerning breaking some barriers and bridging some gaps which are limiting the productivity of our youth, especially the downtrodden ones at the grassroot, the Almajiris, and school-drop-outs who cannot continue their studies due to lack of proficiency in English Language, among other things,” he said.

Ringing said he realised that Language should not be a barrier to achieving one’s dream, especially when it comes to global world.

He argued that there are lot of developments in countries which are not using English Language as medium of learning skills, like European countries where English is not well spoken but still technology, innovation and creativity is flourishing in those countries.

“So, I realised that English Language is not the only medium of learning skills, it is not the only medium of prosperity when it comes to knowledge and when it comes to practicing what you know.

That is why I break the language barrier of English and domesticated the technology and the skills I have in me so that the people will easily tap from my knowledge through the use of Hausa language for better understanding of the subject matter,” he explained.