The Managing Director of Vertex Group, Mr Shitij Taneja, says Nigeria is the Silicon Valley of West Africa.
Silicon Valley is an area in Northern California, USA, that is a global center of high technology and innovation.
Taneja made the allegation while interacting with journalists on the sidelines of the IOT West Africa Expo and Conference in Lagos on Wednesday.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the IOT West Africa Exhibition and Conference is a three-day event organized by Vertex Next and co-hosted by Data Center Africa Cloud Center Africa
Taneja said there is a lot of potential in growth among the youth who put their efforts towards the development of technology in the country.
According to the CEO, Nigeria is a key indicator in the technological renaissance sweeping Nigeria and the wider West African region.
According to him, the strategic importance of Lagos as a host city is intertwined with Nigeria’s rapid development in technology, infrastructure and the growing digital economy.
“It underlines the commitment to improving the business landscape, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises in the technology, agriculture and manufacturing sectors, through the lens of digital innovation.
“There is a lot of investment from data centers to industry and IoT and it is required to adopt technologies
“IoT is something that is required in our daily lives and that West Africa and Nigeria are adapting to.
“Nigeria is the next Silicon Valley of Africa, so to help fuel this fire that we have in Nigeria, this event acts as a fuel that ignites that fire.
“We’re also trying to bring in investors, who are pouring money into startups,” he said.
According to him, there are many startups in Africa and there has been an investment of about $70 billion that has been invested in the startups, with Nigeria having a large portion of the money.
Taneja said the conference was acting as an accumulator to fuel the fire to foster more investment towards the West African economy.
Also speaking at the event, the Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Dr Kashifu Inuwa, called for cooperation among stakeholders.
Inuwa was represented by the Director of Corporate Planning and Strategy, Dr. Aristotle Onumo.
His keynote address was titled “Regulatory Challenges to Support IT Developments in West Africa.
In the speech, Inuwa emphasized that the conference theme resonated with NITDA’s vision and pointed out that the organization’s research priorities included IoT, Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain technology, UAVs, Additive Manufacturing and Robotics.
He said cooperation is imperative for economic growth and development, for sharing ideas and strategies to create solutions especially in the areas of technology.
According to him, the organization has come up with regulations and standards in the sector which are believed to catalyze and develop new businesses and encourage cooperation
“There are a few ways we can achieve this partnership. one is through policy and regulation.
“Also, putting in place a clear and supportive policy and regulation that can encourage not only individual ideas but building a platform. (NAN)
