Globally, the 21st century economy is driven on or by technology. Governments have become critical stakeholder in tech development and deliberately formulate policies that create the environment for innovations, leveraging the youths to drive the country towards the future.
However, in Africa, Nigeria inclusive, the narrative is different. Leadership in the continent is more politically focused than queuing along the direction the progressive world is heading. From tenure to tenure, absence of political will has always been the bane of overall development of societies, thereby impacting the socio-economic well-being of the citizens.
Only few individuals like Adewale Adetona, popularly known as Islimfit, a digital technologist, are aware of the ultimate consequence of what is being neglected, and leading the clarion call to the Nigerian government for a change in the unworthy approach to digital technology as the blueprint for modern development.
For decades, Nigeria’s teeming youths have been relegated to the background, pacified by the lips service of being addressed as the “leaders of tomorrow”, despite the talent and resourcefulness that they have shown, home and abroad. Islimfit, a youth himself, understood this fact and in 2017, launched the Lagos Digital Summit (LDS), a free platform targeted at techpreneurs, digital media strategists, Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) owners/managers, start-ups, etc.
Relating the aim of the LDS, Islimfit, who is a marketing and strategic communication expert said it is to “harness the constant innovations in a fast-paced digital world for the advancement of the society and enrichment of its burgeoning population, especially the millennials.”
Everything rises and falls on leadership and Adetona has not spared the words for government to establish a roadmap at the grassroots that will shape the country’s digital economy, taking advantage of the agile population.
Continuing, Islimfit said, “the Nigerian government need to come to term with the fact that digital technology is the bedrock for the development of the Nation”
Islimfit added that, “they need to develop policies that will shape the Nation’s digital economy and design a roadmap for grassroots digital Tech empowerment of Nigeria’s agile population”.