The Nigerian-American Chamber of Commerce (NACC), has stressed the need for Nigeria to leverage the opportunities of the fourth Industrial Revolution to remain competitive, relevant and for developmental purposes.
Otunba Oluwatoyin Akomolafe, the President of NACC made the call on Thursday in Lagos, during the chamber’s April Business Luncheon.
The theme of the event was: “The 4th Industrial Revolution and the place of Nigeria, What’s Next?”
Akomolafe said that Nigeria must create its own technology, instead of depending on foreign technologies, and develop home grown technology to address the nation’s peculiar needs.
According to him, leveraging new technologies will ease people’s lives, promote knowledge, development, welfare and trade.
“We now need to re-strategise and begin to engage the younger generation at an early stage with an overhaul of our educational system to accommodate such.
“Nigeria must narrow the gap between the technological potential and the policy agenda required to realise it.
“Focus must be made on exploring innovative approaches that are being tried and tested to harness the benefits that technological advancement provides.”
Akomolafe said that currently the world was experiencing the fourth industrial revolution.
According to him, developing environment in which disruptive technologies and trends such as Block-chain, Artificial Intelligence and Augmented Reality will dictate the pace of development among nations.
He advised stakeholders to evolve opportunities, policies, technologies and enabling environment that would ensure it was not left behind in the emerging revolution.
Mr Ernest Faulkner, the Country Manager, IBM Nigeria, called for all hands to be on deck to make a success of the industrial revolution.
He particularly urged government, private sector, particularly the Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and educational systems to work together to ensure the country’s development.
He said that the opportunities of the fourth industrial revolution was coinciding with a growing societal concerns that include data privacy, environmental degradation, market concentration and endemic corruption.
“Business leaders and government need to understand the impact and decide on how best to serve the interests of all of their stakeholders, while navigating a rapidly changing technological and political landscape and ensure our security,” he said.
Faulkner urged the Federal Government to fix infrastructure, invest more in education and technology toward positioning Nigeria for better success and development. ====NAN
