Africa waits on Nigerian youths for digital revolution – Minister

The Federal Government has said the African continent is waiting on Nigerian youths to lay the foundation and lead the digital revolution on the continent.

The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, said this during the maiden virtual Nasrul-LahiL-Fatih Society of Nigeria (NASFAT) Youth SDG Summit.

The minister represented by Dr. Dahiru Abubakar, Head of Operations, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), in his keynote titled “Young People’s Role in Driving Digital

Trends to achieving SDGs” said that the youths are the digital natives and Nigeria has a potential critical mass of ‘digital natives’ that can transform the country into a regional and global digital powerhouse once given the opportunity.

“Innovation is part of our DNA as Nigerians and there are several stories of innovation across the globe that have the imprint of Nigerians. HopStop, an online city transit App acquired by Apple for a whopping $1bn, was owned by a Nigerian-born Entrepreneur.

“Another example- a Nigerian tech solution (Chiniki Guard) beat 750 other startups from 73 countries and went on to win the overall best Startup in the

Artificial Intelligence category and was given an award of $10,000. The event took place at the 2019 Gulf Information Technology Exhibition (GITEX) that took place in Dubai, UAE.

“Chiniki Guard is a Nigerian Artificial Intelligence based security solution for retail stores and supermarkets to monitor, detect, and alert shop owners of shoplifting and suspicious behaviour in real time,” Pantami said.

The National Youth Secretary of NASFAT, Alhaji Kabir Raji, said that the SDGs Summit was their own way to talk and raise our awareness towards achieving the SDG goals as defined by the 17-goals developmental road map.