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NITDA, SMEDAN to Institutionalize SMEs in Nigeria
The National Information Technology Development Agency NITDA and the Small and Medium Scale Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) have agreed to institutionalise the activities of the Small and Medium Enterprises, (SMEs) in the country.
The proposed agreement was revealed at a meeting between Kashifu Inuwa, CCIE, the NITDA’s Director General, and his SMEDAN counterpart, Mr Olawale Fasanya. The meeting was held at NITDA’s Corporate Headquarters, Abuja,
According to NITDA’s boss, institutionalising the SME would serve as a catalyst for creating wealth and prosperity, adding that, “We have between 60-90 per cent of our businesses under SMEs, but operating informally, how can we formalise them so that even the government can benefit by collecting taxes and have a structure in place to capture the GDP correctly, he queried.
Inuwa noted that most of the Startups the Agency deals with are SMEs who are also trying to solve a real life problem.
He said, “We see Startups as our babies, while for you anybody trying to start any business you see them as your babies. We have startups solving problems in agric, commerce, education, and logistics and so on.”
Inuwa added that the world is moving to smart manufacturing whereby you can design anything on your system and print it using 3D printer.
“We have Digital Fabrication Lab in our Center (the National Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics NCAIR) where you can design all these and manufacture them or prototype them and do mass production.”
He also announced that plans are underway to have facilities everywhere as the goal is for every Nigerian to have access to these kinds of facilities.
Enumerating some of the initiatives which the Agency is undertaking and the collaboration is into with the big techs to include NITDA Learning Management System Online Academy, the Director General assured SMEDAN that their SMEs will be on boarded into some of the programs.
“We are also looking beyond SMEs today; we have what we call IDEs (Innovation Driven Enterprises) which is a process where you start with a mindset that you are solving the immediate problem but the bigger picture is to go global and Information Technology is making it possible for you to reach anywhere in the world.”
Citing the recent research conducted by the Lagos Business School on the booming nature of the Gig economy, the Director General said that as at last year, there were over 2 million Nigerians earning a living through the Gig economy who receive training and work from anywhere using IT, like those doing Bolt and online digital marketing.
Describing the roles of the two agencies as common, the Inuwa said they both exist to develop and help Nigerians create wealth through the use of IT.
“IT is pervasive, anywhere you think of today you need IT to enable it. Our lives revolve around technology,” he noted.
“This kind of collaboration is what can help us have structure to even protect the Gig economy as well”, he concluded.
Earlier in his remark, Mr Fasanya said that they were in the Agency to intimate NITDA of their readiness to further enter into other collaborative areas that will be more impactful to the society.
The SMEDAN’s Director General revealed that they have identified about 70 youths in all the 36 states of the Federation who were trained on different skills, particularly on how to market their products digitally.
While disclosing that his organisation wants their SMEs to take advantage of the digital space, Mr Fasanya said that would give them required knowledge on e-learning platforms, e- marketing and so on.
Truecaller has announced a corporate rebranding and launch of a brand new app icon that will be instantly recognisable on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store. The taming of the new brand identity aligns with a significant transformation taking place in the digital space. At the heart of this rebranding is Truecaller’s renewed sense of purpose, energy and enthusiasm.
Commenting on the announcement, Alan Mamedi, Co- founder and CEO, Truecaller said, “We are excited to unveil our new brand identity and logo. It signifies our continued commitment to our users and our focus to constantly evolve and improve, every day.”
“Our mission, to protect communication for all, is what guides us to develop new anti-fraud solutions like Search Context and engineer improvements to improve user privacy,” he added.
As part of this refreshed identity, Truecaller users also get a powerful new anti-fraud feature called Search Context, as a part of the Truecaller AI Identity engine.
While looking at the search results for any number, Truecaller users will be instantly notified if the name for the number has been recently changed or is being changed frequently.
The app also classifies this contextual message into three colour categories: blue, for a neutral change, yellow, which indicates a potentially suspicious name change and finally red, indicating multiple and frequent name changes which are highly indicative of fraudulent and scammer activity.
This message will be shown to all Truecaller users on all search results across Android, iPhone and Truecaller web.
Dr Olayemi Cardoso, on Friday, formally assumed duty as the acting Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
According to a statement by Isa AbdulMumin, CBN’s Director, Corporate Communications, Cardoso’s resumption in acting capacity is pending his confirmation by the Senate.
“This follows the resignation of Mr. Godwin Emefiele as Governor of the CBN,
“Similarly, the Deputy-Governors-designate have also assumed duty, in acting capacities.
“This is sequel to the formal resignation of Mr Folashodun Shonubi, Mrs Aishah Ahmad, Mr Edward Adamu and Dr Kingsley Obiora as deputy governors.
“Cardoso and his colleagues subscribed to the relevant oaths of office at a brief ceremony held at the Bank’s Head Office in Abuja,” AbdulMumin said.
He said that they had since settled down to the task of administering monetary and financial sector policies of the Federal Government.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Cardoso was nominated by President Bola Tinubu as CBN governor on Sept. 15.
Tinubu also nominated Emem Usoro, Abdullahi Dattijo, Philip Ikeazor and Bala Bello as deputy governors
Flapmax has selected 12 startups for the second cohort of its FAST Accelerator start-up programme, which was formed in collaboration with Microsoft.
Starting in October, the FAST Accelerator’s cohort of 12 startups will embark on a five-week comprehensive acceleration programme in Silicon Valley, California.
The programme received over 1,200 applications from 35 African countries in Africa. Applicants represented a diverse range of cloud-based products and services that serve businesses across Africa, and which use AI to promote innovation, improve efficiency, and address crucial challenges in their respective fields.
The top performers in the 2023 cohort, and those that will travel to Silicon Valley, are: Zeeh Africa, Sumundi, Cotrust Equity, Trucki, Orange VFX, 10mg Pharma, Wallx, Moosbu, KCG Aquatec Fish Farming, Aibanc, Zendawa Africa, and Greenbii.
The cohort will collaborate closely with Intel and Microsoft on co-innovation projects, as well as receive sales and marketing assistance and go-to-market enablement to increase their audience reach.
Flapmax will also help the start-ups to apply optimised large language models, as well as scale and fine-tune these models on Microsoft Azure and Intel platforms.
Dr. Dave Ojika, founder and CEO, Flapmax, said: “Our goal is to use AI as a catalyst to enable startups and marginalised entrepreneurs to rapidly and sustainably develop their businesses and create new job opportunities.”
“Microsoft believes that African start-ups and SMEs are well-positioned to become a bedrock for the African digital economy, with relevant solutions to local societal and economic challenges,” said Mame-Fatou Gueye, SME programme manager, Microsoft Africa Transformation Office.
“Participation in the FAST Accelerator programme will help these entrepreneurs capture growth opportunities and expand their market reach,” she added.
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