Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim
ChampionHonourable Minister of Communications
Abuja, Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory, benefits from above average infrastructure and has been recognized as Africa’s fastest growing city – but with that come challenges.
With the rapid population growth, it is clear that the FCT cannot continue to depend on government as its prime economic base. Outside of Government, Abuja’s key industries include, Agro-Allied, Transportation, Retail, Real Estate and Hospitality. Thus, leveraging technology to further enhance these, and the financial services that should back them, provides opportunity to address IDE acceleration.
Abuja lies within a rich belt of mining activity, which would provide access to materials that could be key components of new technologies, in ICT, Agriculture, Construction and Energy, to name a few. With materials science research capabilities in the region, therefore, our vision of innovation encompasses more than ICT alone, but to the needs of other industries. Our goal is to create an attractive IDE platform from these fundamentals, and foster at least one “mini-unicorn”.
We believe there are at least 4 interdependent tiers of innovation, as regards IDEs. These are described in the chart below. To scale up innovation, we believe that a strategy-driven “culture of innovation” must emerge, to which end targeting just one of tier would be counterproductive in the long-run.
MIT REAP Team Abuja includes stakeholders from the National Information Technology Development Agency, TeasyPay, Verdant Agritech, First Icon Mutual Capital, Sigma Pensions, Nile University of Nigeria, and Petroleum Equalisation Fund (Management) Board.
