Among the distinguished attendees were Leonie Van Der Stijl, Deputy-Consul General at the Netherlands Embassy, and Kate Hancock, the Founder of Metaverse XYZ.

The IMC is organised by the Telecommunication and Technology Sustainability Working Group (TTSWG), a multi-stakeholder advocacy organisation focused on advancing sustainability in the Nigerian telecom and technology sectors.

IHS Towers was the principal sponsor of the IMC, with Quomodo Systems Africa and Arnergy as Gold and Silver sponsors respectively.

The conference featured other notable industry experts such as Lanre Bamisebi, Executive Director, IT & Digitalisation, Access Corporation; Reinier van Scherpenzeel, Chief Operations Officer, Tunga; Yomi Awobokun, Founder, CE-IV and Member, World Economic Forum; and Adedoyin Segun-Noibi, Managing Director, Quomodo Systems Africa.

Other participating dignitaries included Sean Burrowes, Co-Founder, Ingressive for Good; Omobola Omofaiye, Chief Commercial Officer, Arnergy; Myke Oseh, Venture Capitalist; Dr. Babs Omotowa, President, Nigerian University of Management and Technology (NUTM); Brent Van Wyk, Commercial Director, S&P Global Intelligence; and Dr Chuks Ekwueme, Chairman, Uniccon Group.

With the theme “Innovating for the Future” the conference gathered an array of industry experts and intellectuals from across the world to explore how to harness emerging technologies to build a more sustainable society and advance the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

A significant aspect of the event was the final round of the IMC Quest, a youth-oriented challenge where creative individuals presented their business ideas that relate to sustainability, to compete for the promised cash prize of N3,500,000, distributed among three categories of winners.

Joseph Ojighoro, the founder of OJ Technologies Limited, a health tech business focused on using virtual reality to enhance clinical training and competency in Africa, emerged as the winner, receiving a cash prize of N2,000,000.

Valentine Nnamani, the founder of OneGrid Energies, a startup dedicated to addressing the energy poverty gap in rural communities, achieved the first runner-up position.

Similarly, Elijah Moses, the founder of Kugatel, a platform aimed at enhancing financial inclusion through integrated payment solutions, was awarded the second runner-up spot. Both were recognised with cash prizes, with Nnamani receiving N1,000,000 and Moses securing N500,000 for their commendable contributions.

Bekeme Olowola, Lead Consultant for TTSWG Secretariat and Chief Executive, CSR-in-Action, whilst delivering the opening remark, also posited that it is vital to ponder the ethical application of the emerging technologies that are redefining the world, “Technology is the invincible hand shaping our future from the deep seas to the infinity of space. As we applaud the humanlike grace of humanoid robots, climate technology, and all the great progress among us today, we must ponder deeply the ethical tapestry of our creations. It’s not just about what technology can do, but what it should do.”

In addition to the keynote speeches and panel discussions, the conference featured an exhibition allowing various organisations and IMC-Quest finalists to showcase their technological inventions, products, and services.

The highlight of this activity was the presence of “Omeife,” Africa’s first humanoid robot created by the UNICCON Group, and another humanoid robot, Okikiola Sagamu, aka “Kiki Saggy,” a remarkable creation of young girls from the Federal Girls Government College (FGGC), Sagamu.

FG Directs NERDC to Integrate Robotics, AI into School Curriculum

The event concluded with the unveiling and launch of the Telecommunication and Technology Citizenship Awareness Roadmap (TATCAR).

TATCAR is a value-driven framework developed by TTSWG, designed to provide an easily adaptable template for businesses in the industry to ensure compliance with international sustainability standards.

This aligns with TTSWG’s goal to embed sustainability in the Tech and Telecoms ecosystem.

TATCAR comprises twenty-one indices covering governance, the economy, the environment, and society, including human resources.

Drawing exclusively from the official constitutions, regulations, guidance, and laws of key government ministries, departments, agencies, and regulatory bodies, TATCAR offers a roadmap for businesses in the ICT sector to achieve sustainability.

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”.

ALSO READ: Osinbajo Inaugurates ‘Omeife’, Africa’s First Humanoid

“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.

Professor Osinbajo was represented at Friday’s inauguration ceremony in Abuja by Professor Isa Pantami, the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, who in turn was represented by the Kashifu Inuwa, Director-General, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA).

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that Omeife was developed by the Uniccon Group.

Omeife is with near-human resemblance, language competency, movement, navigation, and behavioural intelligence using AI and computer vision capabilities.

“We are living in an exciting time of advanced technological advancement, where the science fictions of yesterday are becoming the reality in products and services of today,” he said.

VP Osinbajo said the Federal Government had the responsibility to ensure the success of the project and urged stakeholders to key into it to achieve likewise success as well as develop new ones.

He also allayed fears that technology or artificial intelligence would take over human jobs and render people without employment, arguing that, after all, it was humans that created Omeife and other robots.

Chucks Ekwueme, CEO, Uniccon Group of Companies, said:

Omeife had the ability to speak eight different languages: English, Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo, French, Arabic, Kiswahili, Pidgin, Wazobia and Afrikaans.

He said the six-foot-tall female African humanoid provides language as a service for businesses that need to integrate native African audiences, adding that it is a multipurpose and assistance robot.