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The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has reiterated the commitment of the federal government to creating and supporting blockchain technology ecosystem for innovators and investors. The Director General of NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, gave this assurance at the recent 2022 Blockchain Developers’ Summit in Abuja.
Abdullahi enumerated the multiple benefits and prospects of blockchain while speaking on ‘Blockchain Technology supports Digital Transformation and will facilitate the development of Nigeria into a Digital Economy’ to participants in excess of 2, 000 inside the Baze University, venue of the event. Many of them were members of the National Youth Corps Service (NYSC).
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He said “trust” is one of the critical components of blockchain even as he also formally inaugurated the Baze AI/Blockchain Laboratory.
His words: “There are a lot of opportunities in blockchain and it is critical in every business. Talent is the human component of technology. When you talk about any innovations, especially Blockchain and emerging technologies, it is about the new solutions one is bringing onboard; so you need to task yourself to know which solutions or offerings the industry requires.”
While stressing that anybody can be an innovator or entrepreneur, irrespective of their academic standing, religion, and ethnic group, he argued that innovative ideas cannot be monopolized. He advised the youths to leverage opportunities in the growing digital sector to tackle the myriad of challenges facing Nigeria.
“Innovation is beyond invention, it needs to get to the point of commercialization. Until you can pitch your idea to someone to pay for your solutions, the innovation would sadly only be just an idea. So, we are building an ecosystem that will enable you to hatch your ideas from conception to realization”, he added.
According to him, President Muhammadu Buhari has exhibited a strong political will to continually make the right policies and create an enabling environment for tech innovations but government cannot possibly give out grants or seed funds to everyone at the same time, hence the need for startups to engage with both local and international investors.
In 2019, President Buhari renamed and expanded the mandate of the Ministry of Communication to “cover digital economy in order to create value, wealth and prosperity via the digital economy in line with the objectives of the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS) for a Digital Nigeria.
NITDA, on its own, has developed a Strategic Roadmap and Action Plan (SRAP) in line with the NDEPS to encourage the growth of emerging technologies such as blockchain and investors in that space, said Abdullahi
His words: “We have so many initiatives. Under “Innovation and Entrepreneurship, we established the National Centre for Artificial intelligence and Robotics (NCAIR); The Office of the Nigerian Digital Innovation which works with the ecosystem to help come up with policies that will enable you thrive in what you do.
“We developed the blockchain adoption strategy basically to help stimulate the adoption of blockchain in the country and we have identified six initiatives we are going to implement to achieve that; firstly is to establish the Nigerian Blockchain Consortium which this summit is helping to do that; Secondly, is to strengthen developmental regulation and law; Find focus areas; Promoting Literacy and Blockchain; Digital Innovation Incentivization and the Startup Bill which has passed through the third reading in the National Assembly.”
