The Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency in Nigeria (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa has urged universities in the country to emulate the University of Lagos (UNILAG) by adopting effective sustainability models in their IT Innovation hubs to derive the best values of digital technology as well as enhance productivity.
Inuwa made the call when he paid a working visit to NITDA’s IT Innovation Hub at UNILAG where he was received by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Development Services) of the institution, Prof. Ayodele Atsenuwa and the Director of the Hub, Dr. Victor Odumuyiwa.
Inuwa emphasised the need to effectively utilise IT hubs by universities in collaboration with relevant stakeholders to leverage emerging technologies.
Commending UNILAG for making the hub open to everyone with innovative ideas, he maintained that solutions to some of the challenges pervading the country can be achieved with such gestures and collaboration.
“I am super excited when you said the hub is open to everyone. We need to help them take their ideas from inception to impact, build solutions out of it, build solutions that will change the society, that will impact the community and many more,” he noted.
Speaking further on the importance of leveraging on emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and robotics in building formidable seamless systems, Inuwa stated that “these systems can be used for social justice, criminal justice, and distribution of services in our society.”
Expressing his delight at the optimal utilisation of the UNILAG IT Innovation Hub which has trained and incubated ideas of over 1,200 people, the NITDA Boss enjoined other hubs to which the agency has donated to 5 other universities to scale up their activities and make the best use of the facility given to them.
He, however, stated that more IT Innovation Hubs are being built by the agency outside universities to accommodate more innovative minds in creating wealth for the country and an enhanced economic value.
Appreciating NITDA on behalf of the Vice Chancellor and the entire University, Prof. Ayodele Atsenuwa said that the donation of the building facility synced very well with the University’s aspiration of becoming a notable player in the nation’s emerging digital space.
She explained that the donation of the IT Innovation Hub to the university has completely demonstrated that there is a connection between the traditional curriculum and the innovation which the university is trying to steer.
“We have a lot more to do with 62000 students and servicing the community and NITDA is the only Hub in UNILAG which is open to anyone from anywhere,” she stated.
In a presentation on the hub’s programmes, activities and achievements, Dr Odumuyiwa disclosed that a large fraction of the over 1200 people trained in the facility has gone ahead to do commendable things in the country’s digital space.
He said the facility has attracted more than 20 million naira from voluntary sponsors, and “we are open to every willing tech enthusiast of every age category because we are on a mission to raise the critical human resource needed for Nigeria’s emerging technology,” Odumuyiwa added.
