NITDA pledges to equip eVillage with technologies
The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has pledged to equip the Entrepreneurship Village (eVillage) technology innovations.
The Director General of NITDA, Mallam Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi made this known when he received the Chief Executive Officer of the eVillage, Sunil Santanam and his team at the corporate headquarters of the agency in Abuja on a visit.
According to Sunil, the visit is to seek the Agency’s intervention on digital infrastructure for the eVillage Innovation and Transformation Centre.
He asserted that the opportunities being offered by the Village, if leveraged, would bring immense development to the large youthful population and the entrepreneurship ecosystem as a whole.
“It is a step forward for Nigeria, a step forward for the youth of Nigeria, a step forward for the entrepreneurs of Nigeria and as far as infrastructure and the facilities that eVillage will be offering, we will be second to none in Africa,” he averred.
Speaking, the NITDA DG noted that the partnership is a step towards the implementation of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda with a focus on Accelerating Diversification through Industrialisation and Digitisation.
“The collaboration between the two organisations also aligns with the ‘Infrastructure’ pillar of the Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy’s strategic blueprint of accelerating the nation’s collective prosperity through technical efficiency,” he said.
Inuwa also expressed his excitement at the collaboration because according to him, it aligns with the Agency’s newly crafted Strategic Roadmap and Action Plan (SRAP 2024-2027) pillars of Building a Robust Technology Research Ecosystem, Promoting Inclusive Access to Digital Infrastructure and Services as well as Nurturing an Innovative and Entrepreneurial Ecosystem.
“I see this as a potential technology development zone because when you talk about the technology development zone, it’s not about bringing big hardware or manufacturing equipment and so on, but bringing people together, creating the ecosystem that can ignite and spark conversation about technology on solving real-life problems,” he added.
While giving assurances of the Agency’s support, Inuwa believes that the proposed technology development zone is a technological advancement initiative that promises to catalyse immense transformative change in the country.
Central to the partnership proposal is the acceleration of the technology development zone across the six geopolitical zones in the nation and Inuwa disclosed that all the arrangements between the two organisations would be formalised through a memorandum of understanding.
In her remark, the village’s Director of Initiatives and Partnerships, Joy Francis, shared insights on the Global Entrepreneurship Festival that would come up later in the year in November.
She stated that “the event will bring the global community to your doorsteps and also build a lasting entrepreneurial platform for the benefit of this generation and the coming ones.”
