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:

1. Literacy/skills education,
2. E-Government,
3. 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).

The World Summit on Information Society process towards 2025 is the framework for WSA and all our shared efforts and work to promote, select and award best practice in content driven interactive digital applications and solutions.

The World Summit Award gets a very broad view about rich and creative content from all over the world and narrows the content gap, gender gap, knowledge divide and skills divide. All social entrepreneurs share the perspective that it is crucial to build the right community, reach users, and attract an audience.

Technology is not the issue. Community means a lot of different things, but needs to be built by each new project or enterprise. WSA has built a unique global network of experts and ambassadors supporting young social entrepreneurs, developers and change makers and promoting the WSA social entrepreneurs and start-ups worldwide.

In a significant and recognized contribution to the UN objectives and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), it is a key factor to give digital innovators a unique opportunity to join a global network of knowledge and inspiration.

The board of the WSA is chaired by Prof Peter A. Bruck.

The WSA National Expert for Nigeria Amos Emmanuel seized the occasion of the 62nd independence anniversary of Nigeria to celebrate the winners.

He announced the nominees during a virtual Independence Day Showcase which had in attendance very eminent personalities like Arch. Pierpaolo Saporito, President of OCCAM: Observatory on Digital Communication – Special Consultative Status with ECOSOC, Dr Femi Adeluyi, the Technical Assistant (Research and Development) to the Honourable Minister, Professor Isa Pantami (FNCS), Nigeria’s Minister of Communications and Digital Economy. Other dignitaries include Professor Amjad Umar, Director ICT Programs, Harrisburg University of Science and Technology, USA and Lead Architect for UN ICT4SIDS SPACE4ICT (Strategic Planning for Digital Transformation Toolset Initiative); Jide Awe, the founder of Jidaw Systems, ‘Gbenga Sesan, Executive Director of Paradigm Initiative (PIN); Dr Oyedokun Oyewole, President/Chairman of Council, Institute of Information Management (IIM-Africa) and the Chief Country Data Officer (Nigeria); Hon Haruna Sani, Senior Special Assistant to Nasarawa State Governor on ICT., Mr Anayo Agu, former Senior Commercial Specialist, US Embassy, Nigeria.

Mr Oluwatowo Moses Amos – a Cyprus International University final year student of computer engineering, and Mrs Cinderrella Ochu – a PHD Candidate at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa, were the 2 directors of Programos Foundation who had selflessly assisted the foundation incubation processes since inception and were in attendance as they also shared insightful keynotes on future human capitalization by governments.

In his keynote address, Pantami said countries in Africa must close ranks to bridge digital divide and ensure the Continent is well represented in the global comity of innovation and creativity.

In the views of Mr Anayo Agu, he was happy to share the stories of the largest ICT exhibition in Nigeria – the CTO exhibition dating as far back as 2005 and relates it to the heroic strides of Amos Emmanuel’s Programos foundation achievements declaring it as a unique innovation tech-scouting and promotion incubation research brand in Nigeria.

He had witnessed Programos Foundation’s early exploits since 2007 having chaired a live graduation ceremony that graduated 250 young men and women of diverse disciplines at the Muson Center, Ikoyi Lagos in 2007 – all beneficiaries were freely trained and freely supplied to the Nigeria capital market workforce.

Dr Femi Adeluyi and PA to Prof Isa Pantami who joined the webinar panel from Bucharest while playing a pivotal role that steered Africa’s Dr Cosmas Zavazava to win the top level seat on the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), like other stakeholders saluted the Programos Foundation’s sustained efforts and the indelible records from Nigeria we charted on the world innovation map.

“It shows Africa can close ranks to deal with common challenges we face. Therefore, I commend Mr. Amos Emmanuel for his tenacity over the years”.

“For the Winners, the Minister was quick to reiterate that winning gives the innovator an opportunity to aspire to do more, and quoted the Hon Minister for saying ‘ridicule your previous accomplishment with the present performance’. This has been evident in the sector which helped to lift the country from recession in 2016 and has grown to the extent that in the last quarter the sectoral contributions to the GDP increased to 18.44%”.

Pantami, who said that innovation is the bedrock of any digital economy, added that the government of President Muhammadu Buhari has shown its interest to boost the innovation ecosystem through the drafting and passage of the Nigeria Startup Bill. “This Bill, when passed will trigger a more vibrant startup ecosystem and rob-off on the digital economy”, he added.

Pierpaolo Saporito, the President of OCCAM, in his opening address said “It is great to see young generations actively involved in promotion and integration of new and promising instruments to overcome the challenges of the current society ”

Through Ms Martina Baldessin, the Programme Coordinator at OCCAM, he spoke more extensively on the XXII Infopoverty World Conference tagged “Digital Citizen: Duties and Rights to build a fairer future Society”  coming up December 1st, at the UN Headquarters in New York and has expressed open invitation to Nigeria. This event gathers together governments, policy makers, international organizations, business,  and civil society as a whole to discuss the best digital practices and solutions capable of providing support for general developments and wellbeing.

‘Gbenga Sesan, the social entrepreneur known for ICT for development, ICT for policy, and who was recently appointed by the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres to serve on the inaugural Internet Governance Forum (IGF) Leadership Panel, described the platform created by Programos Foundation: The InnovationbedAfrica as an important space for discovering innovation in the country with growing attention in policy and digital rights.

According to him, Africa has seen the importance of innovation, recognition and investment. “What Programos Foundation is doing is great; they are relentlessly making progress in the ecosystem. We are looking forward to that innovation that will tackle our local challenges”, he said.

Nodding in agreement, Mr. Jide Awe, said Africa has many issues that require urgent attention, especially the digital skills gap. “But it is good to have initiatives like what Programos Foundation is doing. This will definitely position the Continent on the global map as most of the innovations are highly impactful.

In his message, Dr. Oyedokun Oyewole said, “It has been an interesting journey. And I can testify of Mr. Amos’ resilience; operating in an environment that is not always supportive can be challenging, but your perseverance and the success over the years deserve commendation. I sincerely believe that the best is yet to come”.

Sani Dawop, the Governorship aspirant of the Action Democratic Party in Plateau State, a former AIESEC Alumni Nigeria President, and erstwhile General Manager – Dangote Industries Limited, said that young Nigerians must be applauded for their contributions to the nation’s economy; from Fintech founders, healthtech, ecommerce, agritech, to  edutech founders who are using the power of the internet to steer the ship of innovation towards national development as that may deliver the economic independence we desire.

Hon Sani Haruna Sani, SSA on ICT to the Executive Governor of Nasarawa State charged the youths to come out and get busy with creative exploits that can help grow the digital economy dream in Nigeria.

He craves the support of the government towards the Incubation-2030 initiative of Programos Foundation that has started so it can scale across the country.

Impressed by the speakers’ devotion to helping the African youth to innovate especially in Nigeria, Professor Amjad Umar, who admitted of having worked with Programos boss on the UN ICT4SIDS (SPACE4ICT – Computer-Aided Planning for Digital Transformation Programme) in Working Group for more than 10 years, said, “What Programos is doing with its Innovationbed Initiative is important to us in the education and entrepreneurship space. 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’ Innovationbed Incubation programme to link startups to international partners and assist them to scale”.

Prof Amjad Umar expressed happiness to have re-connected with Arch Pierpaolo, President OCCAM at the Programos event, as the initiatives and the testimonies from home and abroad are in line with the tenets of Infopoverty World Conference which had identified our contributions in the integrated community declaration during the session of the 14th Infopoverty World Conference at the UN Headquarters in New York.

Emmanuel Amos, World Summit Awards Grand Jury member and National Expert for Nigeria, announced the winners.

The President, InnovationbedAfrica said : “We are happy to share that some of our national nominees whom we have nominated to represent NIGERIA have been shortlisted in the 2nd stage of the ongoing World Summit Awards Grand Jury meeting in Jakarta, Indonesia”, Mr. Emmanuel Amos, the President of Programos Foundation, told the high-power delegates during the Innovation Showcase.

The winning states from which nominated innovations in WSA Nigeria 2022 have come from are Abia, Benue, Akwa Ibom, Edo, Ogun, Osun, Taraba, Zamfara States. The nominated innovations cover Open Government and Citizens Engagement, eBusiness and Commerce, Health and Lifestyle, Education and eLearning, Green Energy and Environment, Smart Settlement and Urbanization, Inclusion and Empowerment:

1. eGardens (PRODUCER: ABDUL’AZEEZ SAMARU)    
2. LaborHack (PRODUCER: OARE EHIEMUA-OCHUI)  
3. Jekinraa(PRODUCER: DAVID AJIBADE)  
4. eNHIA (PRODUCER: FAITH AKPAN) 
5. MecTech (PRODUCER: ISUWA HUSSAINI)
6. ZamTrackA (PRODUCER: FAUZUDDEEN MAHMOUD)
7. Wind Turbine (PRODUCER: ABAH EMMANUEL)
8. Igede Market Place (PRODUCER: IKANDE SAMUEL)
9. Other pitches including TopNotchers Hub, AAG Affiliate, and Learnaholics in Programos National Day Innovation Showcase 2022

WSA is a global nomination based award system. This year, the WSA National Experts from 79 countries submitted nearly 350 nominations.

WSA 2022 National Nominations by regions and countries

The WSA nominees are selected carefully and highly competitive by the WSA National Experts from more than 184 UN member states.

The WSA National Experts nominate up to eight projects for each country – one for every WSA category.  

In line with the tradition, The WSA 2022 nominees will be evaluated based on seven fundamental criteria: Content, Functionality, Design, Technology, Innovation, Impact and Value.  

WSA combines two major perspectives in its initiative – first the commitment on the UN SDGs, and how to use ICTs for development. 

And second, the development of a global knowledge society. The UN SDGs must be our measurement – in terms of what to look at and where to look.

Today we are living in a completely different environment – through the mobile revolution, through the emergence of the algorithmic age – data has become a capital as much as labour, land money and machinery. Hence, it is more important than ever to evaluate what is excellent content that really offers solutions and impact.

Qualitative, local content has become the key and permanent issue. WSA presents innovation that uses ICT for social connectivity.

Hon. Mohammed Yahaya Tambura, The Director-General, Zamfara Information Technology Development Agency, ZITDA, was represented by the Zamfara state Innovationbed Incubation-2030 Lead, Asmau’ Mailafiya shared quite a passionate message on the national incubation project scaling.

The event which was for a selected audience created so much impact and a great revelation of the potentials in our youths.

Other State governments who registered and deserve our appreciation for next edition include Bauchi, Kano, Abia, Edand Anambra State governments.

Mr Amos Emmanuel is also the Chief Software Architect for Programos Software Group and the Author of Africa’s pioneer Capital Market Solutions called CloudIntegra.