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| Mr. Udom Inoyo |
INTRODUCTION
It is with great pleasure that I welcome all of us to the grand finale of Akwa Ibom Tech Week 2021. Today is a dream come true in the history of our ecosystem which is still emerging. The week started on Monday 13th September 2021 with an IoT Fair at KodeHauz, Eket followed by Tech for Agric Symposium at The Queency Academy, Oron. On Tuesday, we had Build sessions on Product Modelling at FutureLabs, Ikot Ekpene, and a Virtual Session on Extended Reality Session by Devlanda, then in Uyo on Wednesday, Start Innovation Hub had codelab sessions, The Roothub hosted Creative opportunities in the ecosystem while Codekago gave us a deep dive into the future with blockchain technology.
On Thursday Youth Alive Foundation, Ibom e-Library, and Eureka Labs hosted events on Civic space engagement, leveraging technology and the future of jobs. We had Aniedi Udo-Obong, reps from Inoyo Toro Foundation and other ecosystem players join us in the tour of hubs across the state.
LOOKING BACK!
10 years ago, for all these to be achievable, we would have needed a huge budget to import speakers from outside the country. Having technical talents around used to be a dream but it's no more rather having a unicorn with headquarters in Akwa Ibom State is. We are not scared to dream even bigger. We need to sustain this and we know that coming together to achieve greatness requires support for sustainability.
THE SURPRISE VISIT
On 2nd July 2020, we had a guest Mr. Udom Inoyo who paid us a surprise visit at Start Innovation Hub. He came with Mr. Ime Uwah and two of them were in His Excellency Mr. Udom Emmanuel's Post COVID19 Economic Recovery Team. I have never met Mr. Inoyo before neither did we have any prior conversation. He made us understand that they were having the economic recovery team meeting and in their conversation, our name popped up then he asked that they bring him to come to see the space and that's how they got to visit our space. We took him on a tour of our facility and he commended our efforts and added that we are the people that should be supported. When he was leaving, he said "Hanson, I will be back".
After the visit, we've had conversations on how we can help position more Akwa Ibom youths for global success in the 21st century. Today, AKITECH WEEK has given us a platform to do just that with Inoyo Toro Foundation as sponsors.
The Akwa Ibom of our dreams is a smart city with a thriving innovation ecosystem driven by local content. We know this is possible because if we can dream it, we can achieve it. We cannot achieve this effectively without government and academia working together with the private sector for the common good of the people.
PROBLEMS
The overall financial inclusion target was 80% by 2020; EFInA data shows that only 64% of Nigerian adults were financially included by the end of 2020. This means that 36% of Nigerian adults, or 38 million adults, remain completely financially excluded. When data like this give us reason to proffer solutions, the regulatory landscape says otherwise. Not just in finance but power, education, and other sectors. Where regulations don't stifle, there will be an infrastructure deficit but we still believe we can position ourselves for global success in the 21st century.
The success of today's outing wouldn't have been possible without the selfless contributions from our rockstar speakers who are endorsing this cause.
We say thank you;
Nsikan Utuk
Mark Essien, CEO Hotels. Ng
Usoro Usoro, CEO Y'ello Financial Services at MTN Nigeria
Ime Archibong, Head of New Product Experimentation at Facebook
Unwana Efiong Esang Managing Director / Chief Executive Officer of Primera Microfinance Bank.
Otto Abasi Williams Senior Vice President, Head of Partnerships Innovation and Digital Solutions Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East, and Africa. at Visa
Aniedi Udo-Obong Program Manager, Developer Ecosystem for Sub Saharan Africa at Google
To Mr. Udom Inoyo, you have redefined support and the impact will be transgenerational as we have been hungry for such in our quest for global success in a digital economy. As a community, we say Sosongo eti, eti.
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