We are dedicated to celebrating innovation, local ingenuity – Akinosun

Grace Akinosun, partner and director of events at Nigeria Innovation Summit, has said that the annual Nigeria Innovative Summit (NIS) was dedicated to celebrating innovation, local ingenuity and people that are really offering true solutions to pertinent problems in the country and by extension the continent.

Speaking during the Media Parley and the launch of NIS maiden Nigeria Innovation Experience (NiX Talks) to kick off the year’s event, Akinosun said through this platform, there has been a lot of ingenuity and people have pitched innovative products like planes that run on water, cars, generators and a lot more.

She explained that the event has successfully run for seven years now because there are always problems to solve, adding that as long as there are people, there are problems.

Akinosun further explained that the problems faced 10 years ago are different from the problems people face now and it is going to be different from the problems that will be faced in the next decade and that is why NIS is building a platform where people are always ready to pre-empt these problems and create solutions that will mitigate them now and even when they emerge in future.

“We partner with a lot of organisations and stakeholders in the industry from the government to academia such as ICT labs in University of Lagos, Obafemi Awolowo University; we are gradually building up to the federal level.

“We have partnerships with other stakeholders like Microsoft, local and international organisations with innovation hubs across the nation. We have an on ground team in the North that handles anything innovation and also in the South East.

“We are positioning for this ingenuity and the goal is to be at the forefront of tackling real problems in the country and ensuring the solutions built can be accessed by the average person in Nigeria.

“We have had people raise investments in their companies through our platform, we had people collaborate more. We have had investments from local and foreign investors, stake-holder collaborations and public-private partnerships,” she said.

Read also: LESG, stakeholders to validate Lagos; 30-year development plan at Ehingbeti Summit

Also speaking at the event, Patrick Asuama, the country head of Business and Development for Emergency Response Africa said as a health care technology company that provides medical care to victims at the scene of the emergency, they connect emergency victims to help in less than 20 minutes using their smart technology that have been created in-house.

Asuama said by doing this, they have created the largest network of first responders and paramedics, a large network of ambulance services and the largest network of emergency hospitals that help us achieve this solution.

“As the theme says ‘reimaging innovation’, we have been able to create solutions using innovations to help save more lives in Nigeria and help emergency victims get help at the same time. We also provide air ambulances to fly victims and we do this through partnerships.

“We are also a certified training centre as people need to be prepared for emergencies and the best form of getting ready is being prepared. We also conduct certified training for personnels both corporate and individuals that are interested,” he said.

Modupe Okeowo, country manager for KonnectAfrica (Eutelsat Group) said Eutelsat is a satellite operator and has been in business for more than 40 years, operating both connectivity and video business.

For its Konnect services, Okeowo said the firm operates to provide broadband connectivity in Nigeria and over 40 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.

He hinted that they are consistently trying to ensure that they bridge the digital divide in Sub-Saharan Africa as innovation cannot go anywhere without connectivity.

“Without connectivity being available to everyone, it will be difficult to reach out to people to get onboarded on whatever product that you have innovated.

“We have broadband connectivity that covers Nigeria. So, anywhere you are in Nigeria, you can get connected. For example, you have companies innovating around schools, we have done that with DRC where we partnered with an innovation company providing services to schools and they were able to leverage on our connectivity to connect schools and the entire DRC,” Okeowo added.

Now in its 7th year, this year’s NIS edition spanned a week, (Tuesday, October 4th – Saturday 8th, 2022) with over 2,000 expected guests online and offline, and over 60 speakers, and series networking events.