From Olabisi Olaleye, USA [email protected] 08094000013, 08111813040
Every year, Nigeria attends international exhibitions and conferences, including Mobile World, Gitex and International Telecommunications Union (ITU) but no identifiable international standard product has been showcased.
Even at the on-going CES in Las Vegas, United States of America, where several exhibitors request for media presence and also converge to showcase innovations from artificial intelligence (AI) to digital, smartphones, cars, drones , wearables and virtual reality, among others, Nigeria, the acclaimed giant of Africa is conspicuously missing.
Although several stakeholders have said that the country’s agenda wouldbe clearer only when it goes through identification and processing, researcher and university don, Dr. Mustapha Ojo, contends that the inclination in Nigeria is to focus on extracting natural resources. However, such natural resources require technologies to extract and refine.
“Apart from assisting in the extraction and refinement of those resources, such technologies deepen the level of innovation and offer benefits to forward-looking nations. Until we come to such realisation, exhibiting in CES will be a mirage. Recall that CES is a global gathering for consumer technologies. It is not for countries who lack the necessary technologies or who refused to move beyond their primitive stage.
“We do not lack tech creativity because Nigerians, by nature, are always exploring the horizon. But exploration without government input or institutional framework will not go far. Technology is an intellectual property. Where is the institutional framework to protect such creativity? Where is the government support for such creativity? How can tech creativity thrive when Internet penetration is still abysmally low? Where do our schools, either secondary or tertiary institutions, come in? Tech requires regular knowledge update. Do we have such expertise to update the existing knowledge?
“Most of the problems go beyond one ministry. Technology, institutional framework, expertise. These three issues alone require the ministries of technology, justice and education. We have a lot of issues confronting technology and in order to resolve them we need to declare an emergency in that area. We actually need a different strategic focus to confront this issue,” he said.
At a recent forum, CEO, Centre for Cyber Awareness and Development (CECAD), Dr Bayero Agabi, on why Nigeria has not got it right, said, “For a fact, I can’t get why we can’t get it right. Can’t get it that we are at the middle of a knowledge economy, where time, tribe, colour and nationality are taking a back seat for what you know and not who you know. Even the Middle East has set 2030 as the year to ban all fuel and diesel vehicles, with Norway, India, Netherlands and Germany leading the electric car revolution with more aggressive policies. Experts already project that the entire market for land transport will switch to electrification, leading to a collapse of oil prices and the demise of the petroleum industry as we have known it for the century.
“When this happens the situation we are now in will be a child’s play as Nigeria’s economy would dwindle far more than we have ever had it in history.”
He further stated that the insistence on agriculture and the approach is still the same cosmetic way, instead of providing sustainable solutions in the agriculture value chain.
“Most of our agro commodities are still exported raw and imported as finished goods just as we have always had it with our oil. With over $20 billion spent annually on food importation, Nigeria is very far from self-sufficiency in food production.
“Where are our researchers, what is happening at the research institutes, where are the innovators, what are our research findings and how are our ideas solving the myriads of problems in every sector of our national life?”
Meanwhile, president and CEO of the Consumer Technology Association, Gary Shapiro disclosed that over 184,498 came to the show in 2017.
Said he: “This year has greater number of individuals,4,000 exhibitors are spreading out over 2.6 million square feet of space. There are excess of startups that will come to the Eureka Park area of the event.
“Up to 800 companies have arrived, which is a sizeable difference from the 600 that came a year ago; 118 leaders of governments will also attend the event.”
CES is owned and produced by the Consumer Technology Association, which provides the ultimate platform for technology leaders to connect, collaborate, and propel consumer technology forward.