The Chief Executive Officer Cyberchain Consult, Mr Jude Ozinegbe has said that the world is rapidly transiting from a consumer economy to a prosumer economy, and that technology is the fastest way to achieving this.
Jude Ozinegbe, the Convener of the recently-concluded Cyberchain Conference & Exhibition 2021 noted that whilst undergoing this process of economic transformation from the analogue and paper model to the digital approach, businesses need to also pay attention to the security concerns.
In his words, “Cybersecurity plays a major role in the digital economy, and everyone ought to have at least some basic knowledge on how to protect their digital assets from compromise”.
Ozinegbe also emphasized why Nigeria should not play catchup to the Blockchain technology as it did with the dotcom era, stressing that the Blockchain Technology comes with numerous untapped opportunities for the country, as it offers open, secure and decentralized cross-border business engagements for individuals and organisations irrespective of location, ethnicity or time difference.
Cyberchain 2021 conference provided opportunities for participants to understand the blockchain technology at a professional level and gain more knowledge on its benefits and security.
At the Conference, Ozinegbe further tasked Nigerian youth population to make good use of technology to, not only change the narrative in the economic trajectory of the country, but also to establish themselves in positive global trends and competitiveness.
Speaking in line with the Hackathon program, a part of activities for the 2021 conference, Ozinegbe implored youths to take up the challenges and opportunities thrown up by emerging technologies, to create solutions to national and global economic challenges.
He thanked Digital Encode for sponsoring the hackathon, adding that aside from the cash prizes the participants are taking home, the exposure and experience in programming and coding will set them on a pedestal to forge ahead.
He said that this will in no small measure discourage unethical hacking which has become a bane of the society and rampant among the youths.
“These are young people that would become cyber traitors themselves, but they are putting their skills to good use; working to protect the financial ecosystem and Nigeria’s critical digital infrastructure. We are confident that we are going to do very well in the future.”
Digital Encode doled out N500,000.00 to reward Team NOHATS which took the first prize; Team LYTES (first runner-up) received N300,000.00 and Team KURUPT68 (second runner-up) took home N200,000. The third and fourth runner-ups – C7ROW and SECACE received consolation prizes too.
Speaking shortly after the prize presentation ceremony, Dr. Peter Obadare, Co-Founder/CVO, Digital Encode Limited, said that the teams’ performances during the hackathon were beyond Digital Encode expectations.
“The teams performed very well; even beyond our expectations. We never envisaged the level of response we got. We are very delighted in what we have seen with these teams. They need to be mentored so they can go far in the industry. There are people here who came all the way from Rivers and Niger States. It shows that young Nigerians are hungry for success.
They are ready to put in their best to affect the economy. I am sure that within the next five years Nigeria will have enough cyber warriors to defend the country and businesses”.
Dr. Obadare said that results from the hackathon gives the company confidence that cybercrime will soon become a thing of the past in Nigeria, “because we have people that will be protecting the cyber space. So, you are launching your product; be it Fintech, edutech, healthtech, agritech or e-Government platforms, you will do that with the mind-set that you will be protected.”
