Stakeholders in Tech Calls for Collaboration

Stakeholders in tech have called for collaboration with the government to properly regulate the technology industry.

They made this call at the recent Texcellence conference which took place in Lagos, Thursday, and was themed “Innovating for the Future.”

The Group Chief Executive Officer, CWG Plc, Adewale Adeyipo, said there must be some deliberate activities to help work within the regulatory framework to aid acceleration of innovation and co-creation in the industry.

He said, “In any emerging economy like Nigeria, there must be pioneers driving and creating the blueprints in terms of the roadmap going forward.  A decent framework is needed to leverage the industry’s ecosystem. In terms of the viability of the market, we do not have enough organisation yet to be able to capture what is available. Looking at the economy like ours, you would see that the number of start-ups within the economy space in comparison to the population, Nigeria is not close at all.

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“There is the place of the private sector, that is where you find the start-ups, and there is the place of the regulators, which is where you find the regulators, when we both curate a blueprint in our offices, then it is going to speed up execution. In Nigeria today, the private sector is leading innovation; we have countries around the world where the government is leading innovations. The issue I can see is both parts are not spending time in the same room discussing the way forward.”

In the same vein, the Chief Operating Officer, CWG Plc, Afolabi Sobande, said there was a need for innovation to get into partnerships with organisations.

He said, “Innovation is the hallmark for any industry and as technology changes, it is important we should also change, hence African start-ups should embrace innovation which should be aimed at solving problems, it is by then African countries would be at the world stage.”

Meanwhile, the chairman, CWG Plc, Philip Obioha, said innovation was key in driving development, and was essential for a deep look-in by African countries.

He said, “For anything being done to add value, it goes through a process of innovation, and for Africa, there is a need for a focus on innovation, particularly in sustaining businesses, new ways of doing things needs to be found.