The Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has lauded the Eko Innovation Centre, which aims to support technology-driven innovative startups in the state.
Sanwo-Olu, who spoke at the launch of the centre in Lagos, recently, emphasised that the innovation is in line with the programmes of his government, while reiterating his administration’s commitment to leveraging on technology in delivering the megacity dream. In his address, Sanwo-Olu said, “technology is the way to go. It is the way of the future and it is the way the entire universe is going, and everybody is using technology to develop everything we need. We believe that from here, things around the THEME concept that has to do with the environment, education, transportation and health innovations would be developed. People from here would come and give us innovative ideas to solve our transport problem; ideas with which they think locally but act globally.”
Organisers at the event opined that technology is the key driver to fast-growing economies globally, creating smart economies with technology-driven innovative solutions, leading to the creation of new jobs that previously never existed. The Eko Innovation Centre is a private investment, to run independent, without any government funding.
According to the founder of the innovation centre, Victor Afolabi, the idea of a technology-driven innovation centre for the incubation of startups in Lagos is central to economic growth in the state.
“It is in keeping up with this fast-growing paradigm of technology-driven economies that the new Eko Innovation Centre was launched, aimed at discovering, incubating and curating new startups that will create new technological-driven solutions and add more value to an already growing tech ecosystem on the continent. The primary objective being to transform the tech and innovation landscape in Nigeria and by extension, Africa.
“We saw in the Lagos manifesto an agenda to make the state a 21st century economy. The only way to create a 21st century economy is to make sure you are creating businesses and solutions to problems that are driven by innovation and technology,” Afolabi said.