Pantami: FG to establish emerging technology centres nationwide

Isa Pantami, minister of communications and digital economy, says the federal government is planning to establish emerging technology centres across the country.

Pantami said this during a keynote address at the digital Africa annual conference on Tuesday.

He said the centres would further accelerate the process to achieve a digital Nigeria as soon as possible as the federal government has put strategies in place to facilitate a digitalised economy capable of creating employment opportunities and wealth for the country.

Pantami said the conference theme, ‘Building a new Africa with artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain’, could not have come at a better time considering the efforts of the federal government in boosting emerging technologies in Nigeria.

“The seventh pillar of the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS) focuses exclusively on developing emerging technologies among the populace,” he said.

“One of the ways of achieving this has been through the establishment of the National Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (NCAIR) and two virtual institutions currently building capacities in AI, Blockchain technology, Internet of Things (IoT), Cloud Computing, Robotics and various other related fields.

“The development of a National Policy on Emerging Technologies, as part of NDEPS, which will further support the establishment of Emerging Technology Centres in Nigeria is underway”.

Pantami further said emerging technologies have the potential for world domination, adding that Nigeria aims to take advantage of its vast potential to become a leading nation in Africa.

In 2018, the federal government announced that it had concluded plans to establish centres for the acquisition of technology in the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria.

That same year, the federal government inaugurated 42 technology transfer centres in order to encourage market-oriented research across the country.