Dr Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, minister of Communications and Digital Economy, has directed all agencies under the supervision of the Ministry to provide research grants for promising innovative solutions that will help in the fight against COVID19.
He further directed them to incubate the proposed solutions, Transfer / Deploy solutions to relevant government agencies.
Pantami gave this marching order on Thursday while making his remarks during the Nigeria COVID19 innovation challenge; virtual demo day and prize-giving ceremony organized by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA).
The concern agencies include the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Nigerian Communications Satellite Systems, Galaxy Backbone and Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST).
Dr Pantami said “with COVID19, there is a need to fast-track the implementation of the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy for a Digital Nigeria, adding that “ICT will play a great role in supporting contact tracing and physical distancing in the war against the virus”.
The highlight of the day was the presentation of research grants to the tune of 2.2 Million Naira to 3 promising Nigerian startups who participated in the innovation challenge.
The Minister further directed that half of the fund be invested in translating the proposed ideas into solutions.
