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Chairman/CEO of Uniccon Group of Companies, Chukwudi Obinna Ekwueme, shares with IT Edge News, Olusegun Oruame, insights on creating Omeife, Africa’s first humanoid robot, and why the continent must not miss out on the unfolding opportunities for tech and innovation as well as a humanoid robot market expected to be worth $11 billion by 2026.
What is the motivation for the Omeife humanoid robot?
The motivation has always been to bridge technology gap in Africa because Africa has suffered setback in technology especially regarding using products that are not made for them. We felt that we should begin to think like Africans and design products that are going to meet African needs and that was how it started. We decided to make her a female character, meaning we want to encourage more women in tech and finally we want her to portray Africa’s image, culture and heritage to the global community in terms of technology. These are part of the motivations.
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When the idea for Omeife, humanoid robot came to mind, what were the fears you had as to whether this was doable or not?
First of all, we made our research. We read. We toured around with my team to see what everybody was doing, and got to engage some of these top tech countries and organisations. So, I looked at it, it’s no rocket science. These things are just mechanism. If it works for A, it can work for B. So, we told ourselves, all we need is determination. And yes! We had challenges. We were kind of skeptical about the acceptability of this product in the African market because we know we have the problem of Nigeria and Africa not accepting their own but that didn’t deter us. We were still committed to prove a concept that we can show sophisticated technology through Omeife and finally we’ve shown it. The Uniccon Group is into different technologies, and we said why not bring these technologies together to power it in one product of Omeife and let her be an advanced robot. If you watch, Omeife is capable in artificial intelligence, in computer vision, in IoT, and so many other technologies that we have deployed into her. It took a whole lot of mathematical algorithms to get to the level we have achieved and we are very happy that we got to this point that she is now celebrated as the first African humanoid – that is history for us and I believe with the right support and motivation, we would go farther than this.
Ekwueme: “We know we have the problem of Nigeria and Africa accepting their own but that didn’t deter us. We were still committed to prove a concept that we can show sophisticated technology through Omeife and finally we’ve shown it.”
You see Omeife as the convergence of technologies. What would Omeife change in the marketplace?
Omeife first of all would change the mindset of people, that things are possible in technology and technology doesn’t need to come from the far west and all that, then secondly, she’s going to make access to technology very easy because communication to technology is a pipeline to accessing it. Omeife is famous for speaking African languages, so it means that you’ll be comfortable to communicate in your language and also, she identifies the local problems of Africa and provides solution in terms of the Omeife as a Service (OaaS). Omeife as a Service is a program we launched so that she can be relevant without her physical hardware. We can apply Omeife brain, people in South Africa for example; Kenya and other part of the world can be able to use services of Omeife without having her physically. It is going to change a lot of narratives in security and defense because we got the solutions in terms of surveillance and intelligence gathering needed by the army; and also anti-vandalism, protection of properties and life; and we look at medical sector in Africa and also service sector like customer care and all that. There’s a lot more Omeife is going to change for every internet user in Africa.
It is obvious that you have been able to drive some level of government commitments at the launch today. Just so that it doesn’t turn out to be mere ‘political speak,’ the Vice President said the country will work with you, the Ministry of Communication and Digital Economy said they will work with you; the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) said they will work with you. What exactly does the Uniccon Group want from government and how can Omeife work with government to make it a better experience?
We can’t over-emphasize the support and we need the support. Support comes in different forms and yes, we need the support of the government both in finance and also in promotion because if the government promotes us then we can ride on a very strong backbone and also, we need to commercialize Omeife right now, so we need that backup. It’s of no value to us that we designed a robust technology like this and it’s not being commercialized. We saw from the presentation today, an opportunity of over 11 billion dollars is in Omeife via our various product lines. You can imagine what the resources will do to the GDP of Nigeria, so it’s a project for everybody. Besides the government, the private sector has its role in partnership, backup collaboration and using the service as well as believing in the service. Other African countries have their role to play by standing with us too. This project is most rated to protect the interest of not just Nigeria but the entire Africa, We expect fulfillment of government policies. This should not be one of those political statements and promises because it’s not something we should joke with.
Ekwueme: “Nigerian policies and budgets are not supportive to tech entrepreneurs. I want to believe that the government’s commitment, which we heard today, will be put into reality but so far it has not been an encouraging experience. Entrepreneurship in Nigeria is not an encouraging experience.”
What’s your projection for Omeife in two years’ time, what will give you a sense of fulfillment?
Omeife in two years’ time should be a kind of house-brand name in Africa, such that when we mention Omeife to kids they know what Omeife is because they may have encountered Omeife’s service in one way or the other or used it because we are going to be rolling out various applications like we have stated in our timeline. Omeife as a service would have become a part of daily routines; and we have the Omeife metaverse and a lot of other things around Omeife that we believe in two years’ time would be up and running; and Omeife would have surpassed the 11 billion dollars market projection or be around that figure. That’s our expectation.
The Uniccon Group is a convergence of technologies as a group. Apart from drones, what other solutions do you offer?
We’re into general hardware and software; general technology comprising of both hardware and software. We have to put hardware because hardware has been undermined especially in Africa and believe me; hardware has to consume the software. So, we took that bold step to lead that sector and that is what you’re seeing in Omeife. Omeife is an application of both software and hardware and you can see how interesting it is, so we can’t shy away from the full-blown hardware and software technologies. And behind the hardware and software technologies there are others, so you can say we render software that is why we have cloud servers, we render cloud services and we are building the first African, the largest African e-market platform where ‘made in Africa products’ can be sold and also digital products. So, for the first time Web 2 and Web 3 are having a handshake. You have an entire convergence of NFTs, metaverse and token and in addition, blockchain whether Binance or Ethereum. But we are going to be independent on our chain and putting the African culture and heritage in our technology because we feel that the people would prefer what is theirs and what represents their culture than forcing themselves into other technology. We are also into full-blown STEM education and of course research and deployment. That is what we’re doing; we have laboratories, where we carry out imaging research, AI labs and the rest of that. We have smart products from office automation and we’re also a leading company in cyber security, and we have so many other smart products.
“It’s of no value to us that we designed a robust technology like this and it’s not being commercialized. An opportunity of over 11 billion dollars is in Omeife via our various product lines. You can imagine what the resources will do to the GDP of Nigeria.”
Once again, congratulations for the feat today. Will you say Nigeria frustrates entrepreneurship or Nigeria is a country of ‘possibilities’ to address challenges?
I must be honest. Entrepreneurship in Nigeria is not encouraging in the sense that there are basic support entrepreneurs need and there are some policies that are supposed to favor entrepreneurship. Like a speaker said today, R&D is very expensive, most times about 13-20% of a country’s budget goes to R&D, because you either innovate or you die, and if you don’t research how do you innovate? So, we are having a shortfall in that and if the private companies begin to put their hard-earned resources into R&D, they are bound to struggle financially, so it’s not been easy.
Ekwueme: “The Uniccon Group is into different technologies, and we said why not bring these technologies together to power it in one product of Omeife and let her be an advanced robot. Omeife is capable in artificial intelligence, in computer vision, in IoT, and so many other technologies that we have deployed into her.”
Will you say Nigeria is good to you as an entrepreneur?
Like I said, it is glaring, that Nigerian policies and budgets are not supportive to tech entrepreneurs. Except there will be a new change, because I want to believe that the government’s commitment, which we heard today, will be put into reality and be fulfilled, maybe that will change the narrative, but so far it has not been an encouraging experience. Entrepreneurship in Nigeria is not an encouraging experience.
When you started Omeife, did it ever occur to you that you were starting something that will be novel, something that could set a record on the continent?
Actually, before we started, we knew there was no such because at the international robotics conference, you’ll hear Sophia or any of those other humanoid robots, none is coming from Africa. Our target was to also come up with ours which is of African heritage. We decided to come up with something that has African features and that will go a long way to tell people what more to expect from Africa in terms of technology. So, we targeted to build the first African humanoid and here we are, that goal was achieved.
It was one of the motivations?
Yes, the main motivation was to allow the technology to take off. But all these are technologies we have built in different applications, we put them together and we bridged that gap to build the first African humanoid and we can say for sure, Africa has something to represent her in the global community.
