The wealth of nation, tapping into the power of technology

In 21st century, nations are regarded as great or wealthy nation not because of their land size, population or amount of minerals embedded in their land. The wealth and greatness of nations lies in the development of human capacity and ability to harness those human resources to the development of humanity and how to proffer solutions to the problems at hand and challenging future.

Let me say without any equivocation that the strongest economic value of our country today is the ingenuity of our young people who must be given the opportunity to champion their own recovery through innovation and creativity. If we ever needed any proof that our young people are the MOST valuable assets we have, the last visit to Nigeria by Mark Zuckerberg, CEO and founder of the world’s most used social media platform, Facebook, was a testimony.

At Co-Creation Hub, AfriNolly, Andela and a host of other places Zuckerberg visited in Lagos, there is a new vista of hope for our young developers and engineers in the tech industry who are working in several Hubs across the country. The atmosphere has changed as it is now evident that Nigeria is a destination in Africa for venture capitalists in the industry. There is even more hope for young Nigerian developers, building solutions around all sectors of our economy, from transportation, to civic engagement, healthcare, sports and agriculture.

Therefore, it is sad, if not tragic, that the authorities still cannot understand that building the future is about developing solutions and apps that are capable of generating income and huge employment. I am aware that at Co-Creation Hub, Yaba, there is a yearly summer coding camp for children – developing localized applications and picking up new skills to better their future. What Bosun Tijani and Femi Longe started in 2011 is now becoming a goldmine before our very own eyes. Just about five years after, we now have BudgIT, Efiko, Mamalette, Autobox, Truppr and many are still coming up from that hub.

Disruptive innovation is the major risk but seriously it is taken root and begin to drive change in 21st century. The landscape is changing and will continue to change. Organisations that fail to adapt fast will definitely be left behind and lost it relevancy.21st century has been defined as technological or digital age, where everything changes fast and unimaginable speed and technology drives everything.

Digital transformation is in full swing, and companies and individuals are doing their best either to stay one step ahead, or at least to keep up with the crowd.

IT companies must equip themselves for the challenges ahead by meeting expectations of customers in the digital age and also by being able to gather information and evidence , coupled with some measurements in place to make comparison with other competitors . IT companies must be able to compare and contrast the value proposition of their various ICT solutions.

This country has the potential to be a major game changer in the global technology industry “and we have the human capacity to drive the momentum that could impact significantly on our economy and the rest of the continent.” Unfortunately, the playmaker and the policy makers are solely concentrating on the traditional economy like solid minerals instead of knowledge and technologically driven economy.

Re-Imagining our Realities with the global challenge should be the emphasises of the academic and professional institutions, partnering with global IT firm like Microsoft for the practical steps that organisations need to take in their digital transformation, and the potential for enabling the life-changing ideas from entrepreneurs in our country and the continent of Africa. We should begin to take advantage of the the innovation hub across the country.

The curriculum and syllabus need overhauling, we redesign our science and technology curriculum in order to meet the challenges, and yearnings of the people. They must must be tailored to deal with the challenges of the 21st century that our country is facing right now. The Western powerful nations are great because they prioritize and place premium value on science and technology. We can do the same in our country, government can champion it, Diversification need to become reality and not rhetoric in order to change the ugly trends of now and salvage the future.