New Telegraph

Stakeholders outline opportunities in ICT

Stakeholders in the Nigerian Information and Communications Technology (ICT) industry have praised the creative ingenuity behind the development of Konn3ct, Africa’s first online meetings and conference solution, saying its historical launch will be the watershed for a technological revolution in Nigeria and the continent. Developed wholly by Nigerians, Konn3ct is a suite of web-conferencing solutions that cover a range of applications used for meetings, conferences, webinars, live-classroom, syndicate events, and remote cinema among others.

Its formal launch signaled the entry of the first company of African origin into the fast-growth global online meetings business that analysts project to be worth more than $78 billion in the next 10 years. Leading eminent personalities at the launch, which held at a meeting room in konn3ct.com, the Director-General of the Nigerian Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Mr. Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, was optimistic about a company in the Nigerian ICT sector making it to the exclusive list of the Forbes 500 companies in the future. Abdullahi, who was represented by Deputy Managing Director and Director IT Infrastructure at NITDA, Dr. Abdullahi Usman, said the launch of the new meeting app represented a milestone development during his tenure as the DG of NITDA. He added that with the unique features built into the new solution, Konn3ct would strongly fare better against competing solutions in the market.

“Konn3ct boasts of the most robust security architecture in the industry; it has an amazing video experience and, in a continent, where broadband costs and penetration are still a major challenge, the low data consumption cost and other conferencing options that have been built into this solution have all the makings of a world-beater,” he said. A former Managing Director of Wema Bank, Mr. Segun Oleketuyi, said Konn3ct was challenging the status quo. “Konn3ct is challenging the fore-runners. This is a bold initiative from Konn3ct,” he said.

He praised the efforts of NewWaves Ecosystems in giving Africa its first online meetings app, saying that the development falls in line with the agenda of the Federal Government towards encouraging indigenous Nigerian content in the information and communication technology sector. Citing the role played by online meeting solutions in facilitating government activities, especially during COVID-19 of 2020-2021, he expressed the belief that the arrival of an indigenous solution would be of greater benefit to the government and people of Nigeria. Also speaking, President, Nigerian Computer Society, Prof Adeshina Sodiya, said Nigerians do not need to look outside for software. According to him, “any software you need you can get it in Nigeria. Konn3ct has proven this fact.

It is adequate for our needs as a nation and the world. Whatever product NITDA puts its stamp on is always good. With Konn3ct we will not need to use our foreign exchange on foreign products.” In His goodwill message, President and Chairman-In-Council Computer Professional Registration Council of Nigeria (CPN), Prof. Charles Uwadia, linked the innovation behind the building of the Konn3ct meetings solution to the power of the indefatigable Nigerian spirit that, according to him, had earlier manifested during the financial technology revolution that was then, inspired by the banking sector. Referring to its 3.16 percentage contribution to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at a time of national and global economic lockdown, Prof. Uwadia was sure that the ICT holds strong promise in the economic revitalisation of Nigeria.

Read Previous

HP seizes 4.5m counterfeit print products in one year

Read Next

Managing prostate problems (2)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *