The Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa CCIE, has called upon universities in Nigeria to adopt effective sustainability models in their IT Innovation hubs, taking inspiration from the University of Lagos (UNILAG). During a working visit to NITDA’s IT Innovation Hub at UNILAG, Inuwa was received by Prof. Ayodele Atsenuwa, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Development Services) of UNILAG, and Dr. Victor Odumuyiwa, the Director of the Hub.
Highlighting the impactful role of Information Technology in society, Inuwa emphasized the importance of universities utilizing IT hubs in collaboration with stakeholders to leverage emerging technologies and optimize their benefits. He commended UNILAG for opening its hub to individuals with innovative ideas, noting that such collaboration and initiatives could contribute to addressing societal challenges.
Expressing his enthusiasm for the hub’s inclusivity, Inuwa stated, “We need to help them take their ideas from inception to impact, build solutions out of it, build solutions that will change the society, that will impact the community and many more.”
Inuwa further discussed the potential of emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and robotics in creating efficient systems for social justice, criminal justice, and service distribution within society. He urged other universities with IT Innovation Hubs, including the five institutions that received donations from NITDA, to scale up their activities and maximize the resources available to them.
While NITDA continues to build additional IT Innovation Hubs outside of universities to accommodate innovative minds and contribute to national wealth creation, Prof. Ayodele Atsenuwa, on behalf of UNILAG, expressed gratitude to NITDA for the donation of the IT Innovation Hub.
“We have a lot more to do with 62000 students and servicing the community and NITDA is the only Hub in UNILAG which is open to anyone from anywhere”, she averred.
Giving a presentation of the hub’s programmes, activities and achievements earlier, Dr. Odumuyiwa disclosed that a large fraction of the over 1200 people trained in the facility has gone ahead to do commendable things in the country’s digital space.
Stating that the facility has attracted more than 20 million naira from voluntary sponsors, he revealed that “we are open to every willing tech enthusiast of every age category because we are on a mission to raise the critical human resource needed for Nigeria’s emerging technology”.
