The upcoming 4th edition of the Nigeria Innovation Summit will provide a platform that fosters collaborations among government agencies, businesses, international organisations, innovators, researchers, academic community and start-ups in the country to use technology and innovation to drive sustainable economic development.
Technology analysts say the annual summit, which helps Nigeria embrace innovation and move in the direction of digital transformation is a move in the right direction, as it will spur development in various sectors and industries by encouraging the use of emerging technologies and trends, research, development, commercialisation, entrepreneurship and investments.
Explaining this year’s theme, ‘Accelerating Nigeria’s Economic Growth Through Innovation,’ Kenneth Omeruo, CEO, Emerging Media-the organisers of the summit said; “This is the time for Nigeria with her youthful population, to leverage new technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality, Blockchain, Internet of Things, robotics, data sciences, etc, and apply them in sectors like health, agriculture, financial services, education, renewable energy and clean-techs to solve problems around us.”
He declared that these opportunities were already creating new businesses that have become major sources of foreign investments into Nigeria and described that as “a major way of accelerating Nigerians economic growth. This is our motivation each year to host this summit.”
Omeruo further explained that small businesses and start-ups held the key to a sustainable economic growth for the country, as in 2018, according to Partech Africa report, Nigerian start-ups attracted US$ 306 million in funding over 26 deals. He encouraged the government to provide more support and create the enabling environment for Nigerian businesses and innovations to thrive.
Tony Ajah, programme coordinator for Nigeria Innovation Summit 2019, said, “Each year we bring in experts from around the world in several innovation ecosystems to Nigeria to share these global opportunities and network with participants at the summit.”
Ajah said this year’s summit would feature keynote presentations, panel discussions, workshops, exhibitions focusing on healthtech, agritech, renewable energy and cleanTech, fintech, edutech, techtainment, emerging technologies, research, collaborations, women entrepreneurship, youths, technology and entrepreneurship development in Nigeria.
The summit is scheduled to hold in Lagos on August 20-21, 2019. It offers great opportunity through sponsorship, partnership, and exhibitions of innovative products, ideas, applications and services.
