Reshaping
Reshaping Digital Revolution: Minister Calls for
Stakeholders Participation
The Honourable Minister of
Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim
Pantami FNCS, FBCS has stated that the Federal Government
is willing to partner Academia in Information Technology Profession
(AITP) and other stakeholders for Nigeria to play active and key
roles in the 4th Industrial Revolution era.
He stated this during the
International Conference on Information Technology in Education
2020 organized by the Academia in Information Technology Profession
(AITP) with a theme: Fostering IT Eco-system for Effective
Realization of the 4th Industrial Revolution held
today on Zoom Webinar.
Representing the Honourable
Minister, The Director Radio Monitoring & Survey, Engr. Kilyobas N.
Binga pointed out that part of the preparation for the
4th Industrial Revolution was the Federal
Government initiative to rename the Ministry as the Ministry of
Communication and Digital Economy to deepen ICT and spur Nigerians
to take a leading role in the 4th Industrial
Revolution.
He said
4th industrial revolution is a fusion of artificial
intelligence (AI), robotics, Internet of Things (IoT), Quantum and
Cloud computing, Big data, Intelligent Transport System and several
other technologies noting that the theme of the conference is apt
to the digital economy policy and strategy of Nigeria.
In his words, “we need to develop
appropriate strategies to enable us to play an active and key role
in the 4th Industrial Revolution era and develop
the capacity of the people that would work in the new
environment”.
Engr.. Binga urged the
participants and organizers of the conference to participate
actively and avail the Ministry of the communiqué of the conference
as the Ministry is willing to partner with the stakeholders
including Academia in Information Technology Profession (AITP) to
deepen the use and application of IT/ICT in order to launch Nigeria
and indeed Africa to the 4th Industrial
Revolution.
The Chairman of the occasion, the
Honourable Speaker of the House of the Representative, Rt. Hon,
Femi Gbajabiamila said that the conference is very important
especially this period of President Muhammadu Buhari’s efforts to
diversify the economy through the use of Information Communication
Technology (ICT).
“We cannot be left behind as a
nation and we need to take Information Technology to the
rudimentary level and impact the culture of ICT at a tender age to
our children. We need to build more schools with dedicated ICT
facilities and make IT compulsory in the school system”.
Earlier, the President, Academia
Information Technology Profession (AITP), Professor Afolayan.
A. Obiniyi stated that AITP is an interest group of the Nigeria
Computer Society (NCS) which is aimed at promoting quality research
in education with higher impact in computer science, information
technology and relevant fields.
He said it is pertinent for the
academia to be at the forefront of the
4th Industrial Revolution since we missed the
1st-3rd industrial revolution as a
country and the need for them to take up some of the local
materials in their research and domicile it in the country using
the principle of the 4th industrial revolution.
“It is time to challenge
ourselves to critical thinking and stir up our students to develop
pragmatic minds that will bring development to this nation. There
cannot be a good research day without a digital repository. Digital
Repository is very vital to academic research and development in
the 4th Industrial Revolution”.