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By Joy Amaka Onweani
The annual Nigeria Tech Innovation & Telecom Awards (NTITA), regarded as Nigeria’s ICT Oscars Awards, will be holding November 19th, 2021 at the Plush Oriental Hotel, Lekki at 6pm.
As the sector’s most famous and prestigious awards, NTITA operates as a collaborative platform with stakeholders majorly the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) and the Africa Digital Economy Forum (ADEF).
NTITA, which focuses on recognizing individuals, organizations, national and subnational entities including states at the forefront of digitization with innovative tech products and services, is managed by InstinctWave, an ISO certified company.
This year, the 5th NTITA is a convergence of creative thinking, entrepreneurship, political willpower, and tech innovation even as it celebrates the resilience of ICT stakeholders in a global environment tackling the COVID-19 pandemic.
The 2021 edition of NTITA is similarly spotlighting the country’s technology leadership, most promising innovations, companies and projects; and political leaders pushing the required willpower to foster right environment for ICT innovation to flourish.
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“The pandemic has taken its toil across sectors. But the telecoms and ICT industry still holds out as the most formidable underscored by its growing contribution to Nigeria’s GDP. The contribution is now over 17% and a revelation of the energy, creativity and commitment of the people, government/state actors and private enterprises driving the sector,” said Mr. Akin Naphtal, CEO of InstinctWave, Africa’s premium B2B event and media specialists.
Awards Nominees
Last year, Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami and Governor Simon Bako Lalong of Plateau State top the nominees list in the government space as Digital Personality of The Year and ICT Governor of the Year, respectively. The leading lights in the regulatory and service space were Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Galaxy Backbone Limited, and Airtel among others.
“The nomination space is wider and more challenging this year as the sectors continuously pulsates with fresh ideas and projects,” said Naphtal in Lagos.
NTITA 2020 held in Abuja as part of Nigeria’s Diamond Jubilee. This year, it returns to Lagos.
Nomination Criteria
The nomination criteria focus on persons or organisations at the forefront of promoting regulation, standards or best practice; persons or organisations actively driving technological innovation; persons who have used their office to bear on advancing technology innovations; and persons who are instrumental in the success of an ICT organisation or business; among others.
“Every year the categories are updated to reflect industry dynamics, latest market trends and to ensure they do justice to our increasingly diverse industry. The new featured award categories allow us to recognize contributions from all parts of ICT sector; from communication service providers, solutions providers, banking, health, insurance, fintech, cloud, cyber security, digitization and consultancies,” added Naphtal.
COVER IMAGE: Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami shares the NTITA 2020 moment with Director General of National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Mallam Kachifu Inuwa Abdullahi.
