The minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, has called on young innovators to explore emerging technology and come up with creative, innovative ideas that would bring positive change in the nation.
Pantami, who stated this during the presentation of the Young Innovators tag “Seeds for the Future” by the Managing Director, Huawei Technologies Nigeria Limited, Zhang Lulu in Abuja, said it was the desire of the government that the young innovators become job creators rather than job seekers.
According to him, “as potential digital personality, you must think about being potential employers. Come up with big ideas as you become potential employers instead of job seekers. Each and every one of you should think of employing 50,000 people in a few years”.
Pantami said “in the next few years most probably, one may not need to travel to India, Egypt, USA or UK for medical attention or surgery. Surgery can be conducted by using 5G and through artificial intelligence.”
He urged them to focus more on emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, robotic, cloud computing, quantum computing, mega storages, Internet of things, visual reality and augmented reality.
The minister thanked Huawei Technologies for keying-in to the capacity building of the young innovators in the country and urged them to focus on the hands-on training and bridge the gap between the academia and the industry.
Lulu while presenting the students from different institutions in Nigeria noted that Huawei had been investing in digital skills in Nigeria and had implemented various programmes in the country.
He said during the young innovators’ visit to China, they would be able to attend hands-on trainings at Huawei’s world-class labs, learn the latest trends happening in the industry and exchange ideas with the experts from around the world at their global headquarters in China.
The Young Innovators selected from different Universities are Ugwu Obinna, University of Ibadan; Udohi Young, Covenant University; Akingbola Oluwapemisin, Univeristy of Ibadan; Onuora Chiamaka, University of Lagos; Ihenyen Joy, Igbinedion University and Fatima Rabiu, Ahmadu Bello University
Others are Kolade Joseph, Cloud Exchange Technical School; David Kemdirim, University of Port Harcourt; Abdussamad Musa and Abdulrahman Aliyu, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University.
