By 
Communique issued at the 17th Annual Titans of Tech Conference and Awards held at the Oriental Hotels, Victoria Island, Lagos on Friday, July 23, 2021.
Recommendations and conclusions
Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things (IoT) are today pushing the frontiers of technology use in new and dramatic ways. AI/IoT will accelerate the adoption, penetration and use of digital technologies. It is not a sprint, but a marathon. The urgent needs is to gradually but surely build the Nigerian digital and tech sector from the ground up.
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Digital economy – the emerging economy based on digital computing technologies in the conduct of business and living – is the future of human existence. The world is gearing towards digital trade, digital health, digital education, digital agriculture, and even digital security.
The backbone of the digital economy is hyper-connectivity and human resources. Everything that can be connected should be connected. The benefits of A.I and IoT are limitless.
IoT will create jobs, transform the economy and boost productivity. Nigeria has abundant human resources. Imagine installing 40 million fire alarms in 40 million homes in Nigeria. That would require a lot of technicians, and this is an avenue for job creation, employment and revenue generation. IoT will boost Nigeria’s economy.
IoT will save Nigerians from agricultural losses, post-harvest losses, livestock losses, operational losses, and resource losses. The application of IOT is endless. It saves time, eliminates waste, maximizes profits, reduces anxiety, monitors environments, enhances security, and optimizes businesses to achieve maximum profits by 45% and above. It can achieve this across all industries. Any organization and government that doesn’t adopt IOT and A.I will be at a disadvantage.
A.I and IOT is the gateway to the future, as the conscientiousness of the labour force and workforce is diminishing. It will bring about ease and optimization in every sector. Technologies save time and resources. AI/IoT multiplies the effects of technology.
Nigerians should not just adopt technology as a consumer or as the end-user alone, there must be conscientious efforts to become creators and producers. Consider Zoom platform. Eric Yuan created the video conferencing platform to speak to his girlfriend, during long train travels but the pandemic has seen it merge as the number platform for meetings, social events and virtual business. It is best to to begin digital entrepreneurship early. The establishment and rise of fintechs in Nigeria has proven that Nigeria has the potential to surpass other African nations in the digital economy.
Nigerians are already adapting to the digital economy. In the immediate past, the prevalent thinking was that if you order food from a far distance or location, you do not have an idea of what the messenger or whoever cooked the food has added to the food. But now, people have adjusted to using delivery services like Konga, Jumia, to order meals, cakes, pizza, swallows (eba. Poundo yam, etc) & traditional cuisines.
The digital economy runs on digital infrastructure. the more digital infrastructure that is deployed the faster the country can make the transition from the traditional economy to the digital economy. Priority should be given to the improvement of infrastructures, like power development, data centres, and solar energy explorations among others.
To truly leverage IOT, A.I and to build a digital economy, there must be multisectoral plans to build smart cities, smart homes, data centres, smart industries and smart refuse disposal factories.A.I and IOT have simplified work and increased efficiency. People no longer commute as much to meetings or to deliver goods and services.
The regulator is already taking steps to make available spectrum for 5G. Digital entrepreneurship needs 5G technology to thrive. It will also help Nigeria gain more reliable statistical data. A.I and IOT can help us gain reliable, intelligent data. Today, the benefits of the cloud are evident in organizations storage operations. A.I and IOT are here to stay.
The government can generate revenue from the sale of spectrum snd other licenses. Through the National Broadband Policy, the government has highlighted its readiness to move the country forward. The government must now take the lead to digitalise its own services. IT CAN START BY URGENTLY SETTING UP AN IOT WORKING GROUP.
Panelists at the event were Engineer Ikechukwu Nnamani, CEO Medallion Communications, Lare Ayoola, CEO IoT Africa and Tranter IT Comms, Olatayo Ladipo Ajai, Country Manager, InfoBip Nigeria, Tinuade Ogunfuyi, and Aderemi Adejumo, MD, CloudFlex services Nigeria. Mrs. Louisa Olaniyi moderated the event.
