Technology, Innovation & Entrepreneurship Nigeria’s Hope for Survival- NIS

Nigeria Innovation Summit has once again conveyed messages on the need for Nigeria, businesses and entrepreneurs, to embrace technology and innovation so as to drive a sustainable economic growth.

This is the unanimous thought of participants at the 2017 Nigeria Innovation Summit (NIS) and the Nigeria Innovation Awards, held in Lagos recently by the Emerging Media and the African Innovation Academy.

Each year, the event brings together the major drivers of Nigeria’s innovation ecosystem, namely; the government, the academics, the industry and entrepreneurs to share ideas, connect, network and more importantly work together to do practical projects that will drive innovation in Nigeria.

Technology and innovation thrive well in a healthy ecosystem, said Mr. Kenneth Omeruo, CEO of Emerging Media, who further explained why they held the Summit.

He said, ‘Nigeria has human, natural and the financial resources to become a leader in technology and innovation in the comity of nations but we are nowhere to be found even among many African nations. This is largely to the fact that government do not truly support or invest in technology and innovation in Nigeria. They are yet to understand its importance as to give it all it takes to create an enabling environment that will naturally attract the needed foreign investments.

“Based on that Nigeria is yet to witness major capital investments from top technology and innovation companies like GE, Google, Microsoft, Intel, IBM, etc. who have had their presence in Nigeria for several years now. I will leave you to ponder on why some of these companies are investing in other countries in Africa and not in Nigeria.

“Just to remind us that Technology, Innovation and Entrepreneurship is the only hope for Africa's survival, and Nigeria should wake up to play a leading role. With Emerging Technologies like Virtual Reality, Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, Genomics, Internet of Things, increased awareness on Crytocurrency, Cybersecurity, Data Mining and Analysis, it is obvious that the next 20 years within the Fourth Industrial revolution will create a whole new economy and new industries.

“This is so evident in what countries like Japan, China, US, South Korea, Germany, Israel and innovators and game changers like Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos are all investing in.

He said that stories of young Nigerians, who against all odds are doing their best to build a bright future, are shaping how Nigeria and indeed Africa is looked at globally, and they are attracting global attention and investments. We have gathered such young Nigerian Startup founders who are exploring opportunities in Fintech, EduTech, Health Innovations, Green Energy, Open Innovation etc. to share their insight.

On his part, Mr. Tony Ajah, Director, Nigeria Innovation Summit (NIS), reflected on the 2016 Global Innovation Index, where Nigeria was ranked 114 out of 128 countries based on the investment in research and development, infrastructure, ICTs, political environment, regulatory effectiveness, knowledge and technology output, market sophistication etc.

‘And in 2017, we were further ranked 119 out of 127 economies. In Africa, countries like Mauritius, Kenya, Rwanda, Malawi, Uganda, Tanzania, Morocco, Ghana, South Africa, and Tunisia are ahead of us in technological innovations. This is so because we do not invest in innovation, research and technological development.

“This strongly proves that we are in dire need for a technological and innovative transformation through entrepreneurship. Hence, the theme of this year’s Summit: Transforming Nigeria’s Economy through Technology, Innovation and Entrepreneurship. There could be no better time to promote innovation in Nigeria than now. It’s so obvious that every sector in Nigeria's today needs disruptive ideas driven by technology and innovation”.

He said that Nigeria has the potentials to be a global economic power if we embrace and invest heavily in technology, innovation and entrepreneurship, lamenting that the absence of a clear-cut national policy document for technological has over the years hampered the nation's drive in using technology for economic development as we see in some countries.

In a presentation on ‘The Need for Private Sector Alliance to Drive Health Innovation in Nigeria’, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Private Sector Health Alliance of Nigeria (PHN) Dr. Muntaqa Umar-Sadiq, said the nation’s healthcare sector has received billions in grants; however the inadequacy of current health programs and stagnated results necessitates bold and disruptive innovative approaches to transform the sector.

According to him, the epidemiological transition and population growth projected in the country exacerbate the need for scalability of effective innovative approaches within the health sector.

He said that the state of health was characterised by poor outcomes, poor quality and a lack of protection from financial risk which attracted the interest of concerned Nigeria who set up PHN to  mobilizes private sector to complement government’s efforts in accelerating improvement in health outcomes by focusing on innovation, impact investments, advocacy and public-private partnerships.

The Nigeria Innovation Summit, a brainchild of Emerging Media, also attracted participants delegates from Research Institute for Innovation and Sustainability, South Africa; the Private Sector Health Alliance of Nigeria; Anambra State Government; Kaduna State; Google Business Group; Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment; UNIDO/NIRP; Enspire Business Incubator, Abuja; Oxford Business Group, UK; British High Commission; Lagos Business School; University of Lagos; Federal University of Technology, Owerri; Caleb University; Crescent University; Nasarawa State University; Nuhu Bamalli Polytechnic, Zaria, amongst others.