… Applauds Organisers, Encourages Participants
The governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu has called on organisations to collaborate with the State in grooming young innovators, to enable Nigeria harness its talents in the technology space in a bid to match the global trend in tech.
Speaking at the fourth edition of the Zenith Bank Tech Fair, which held in Lagos on Thursday, Governor Sanwo-Olu noted that the State government, having noticed the tremendous effort Zenith Bank has put into raising young tech innovators, has also set plans and resources in place to ensure that Nigeria is not left out in the global quest for development using emerging technologies.
According to the governor: “It is all about the future, and I see a great future of what we can use technology and AI for.
“This is the era of innovation. This is the era of young, dynamic, minds of Lagos. This is the era where we have to let all of the great minds, all of the very innovative minds that we have in other to have a place and opportunity to galvanise all those together, and give you a space and a voice, and an opportunity to fly to do all those great things you do.
“With the likes of Zenith bank supporting Lagos State, the state is increasing its funding for R&D in Tech, through the Lagos Sate Science and Tech Research Center, from N500m to N1b.”
The theme for this year’s edition of Zenith Tech Fair 4.0 is ‘Embedded Finance, Cybersecurity & Growth Imperative – The Impact of AI’.
In her address earlier, the Group Managing Director/CEO of Zenith Bank, Dame Dr. Adaora Umeoji disclosed that over 1000 entrepreneurs have been empowered through the Tech Fair and other programmes initiated by the bank.
She thanked the financial sector regulatory body, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for support and their great work in the Fintech space, and extolled the visionary leadership and foray into the tech space in banking by the Founder and Chairman, Mr. Jim Ovia.
Dame Umeoji, while noting that the theme of the Fair underpins the future of banking, further said that embedded finance is a form of innovation in the sector. She enumerated the transformations and innovations in the tech space to include smart devices, driverless cars, among others.
“Embracing innovation is key. The event is meant to nurture fertile minds. This will help breed the likes of Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk in Nigeria,” she maintained.
She also spoke on collaboration among public and private sectors to ensure that youths in the tech space are giving platforms to grow and innovate in AI fields. “The impact of AI is very transformative.”
She further spoke to the theme of the Fair: “Embedded Finance integrated financial services into non-financial platforms. This model makes financial services more acceptable to consumers. We can see it in eCommerce services like Jumia, Konga, Amazon, among many others.”
The Zenith Bank GCEO said that since there is an obvious increase in cybersecurity issues, young Nigerians can be groomed to learn more about these changing nature of cyberattacks to be able to combat them.
She concluded by pledging Zenith Banks commitment to empowering tech innovators and entrepreneurs, while being open to partnerships that are geared towards same goals.
