EkO INNOVATION CENTER PRESENT ART OF TECHNOLOGY LAGOS 4.0.
THEME: TALENT ACCELERATION AND A SMARTER LAGOS.


Talent acceleration and a smarter Lagos. Keynote speakers Mohamed Yahya, country representative UNDP Nigeria, Abubakar Suleiman, chief executive officer at sterling Bank Plc, Sumch Tarek - managing Director BD Task Ltd (Bangladesh) and Rishon Chimboza - managing Director, Africa - Tony Blair institute for Global change.
The programme also recognised the present of Deputy governor Dr Obafemi Hamzat who represented His EXCELENCY Governor of Lagos state Babajide Sanwo-olu and he gave the keynote address.
Schools who participated in the talent show was also there for price giveaway, some of the schools include Iju Senior Grammar School, Community junior Grammar School, Lagos State Civil Service Senior Model College, lsawo Comprehensive Junior High School Ikorodu and others, the price giveaway was laptops for further intensive learning and talent explore.
The conference creator of this program Mr Victor GBENGA AFOLABI who is also the founder of Eko innovation center/CEO Hazon Holdings told the press during an interview that the people lack policy innovation and they want to make sure that they impact policy innovation and also work on the talent of the young ones in other to get them prepared for future greatness and that is the reason Eko innovation are catching them young now.
He also stressed that Eko innovation started with 1.0 and today it has gotton to 4.0, both Nigeria's State and globally.
In his opening speech he stated that the The largest technology conference in Nigeria, Art of Technology (AOT) Lagos, brings together important public and commercial sector stakeholders to explore policies and strategies that will help Lagos become smarter, digital, efficient, and competitive over time.
 Today we anticipate having more than 30,000 participants, up from our initial starting point of 2000+ in 2019. We are, in my opinion at the appropriate moment and place to be attending this conference. Let's work together to speed up the sharing of ideas and adoption of effective techniques.   We all recognize the value of innovation, science, and technology in our daily lives and how they are changing the world. Our participation in this massive effort is equally crucial.   He further said that their experience with AOT has persuaded them the only way they can actually accelerate progress and decrease inequality is through multi-stakeholder and multi-lateral cooperation by  tasking technology. It is a collaborative space for decision-makers, business owners, entrepreneurs, financiers, diplomats, and members of civil society. He urge the distinguished participants, that It is crucial to harness the youth's energy in the appropriate way if the State is to experience total development throughout all facets of society; otherwise, no one will be able to stop that country from suffering a sharp decline.The youths are undoubtedly the face of our  state and nation in the future. They are full of wonderful ideas and boundless energy he said, so if you give them the correct platform and plenty of possibilities, they are sure to shine like a star. {ROP}   I firmly believe that working together is essential right now, and that mobilizing the youths behind a shared goal may accomplish wonders. His earnest espectation is that, as a result of their tireless efforts, this conference will assist the youths in making firm decisions about how they might get closer to achieving their objectives.   On this note,   Talent Acceleration and Smarter Lagos will be their focus. Therefore, they are creating a 10-year roadmap to widening the talent acceleration pipeline to achieve talent sustainability that will deliver the Smarter Lagos. he appreciates, Mr. Governor, Dr. Deputy Governor, SA Innovation and Technology Eko Innovation Center And the staff of the Ministry of Science and Technology   For making this event possible

The Deputy Governor Hamzat Obafemi who gave keynote address confirm lagos state hold the largest technology gatherings in Nigeria.
He said that Lagos state will ultimately create value through technology in Lagos. In preceding AOT events, we have been able to foster value creating contributions that have enabled a deeper and better collaborative relationship with the ecosystem. With 25,000 online and offline attendee registrations this year,vur participation has enabled this event to be one of the largest in Nigeria He said.
In continuation he stated further that continuing success of this gathering is a testament to the platform it provides to both public and private sector stakeholders to co-create and drive value in this ecosystem.   We are particularly enthused to see the growth this ecosystem has experienced over the years. According to Startup Genome, Lagos is now the number one technology startup ecosystem in Africa in terms of funds deployed. It is the number one ecosystem in terms of performance and sheer number of startups creating value. Between 2019 and 2021, over a 120% increase in Venture Capital inflow into Lagos was realized resulting in 1.5 billion dollars in VC funding in 2021 alone. We have records of over 2000 Startups creating and contributing value across Fintech, Agritech, Construction, Health and so on. All of this points to an open and enabling environment for the growth and proliferation of entrepreneurial activity within the technology ecosystem. As was witnessed during the telecommunication boom of the early 2000s, Lagos has provided the central core of business and technological development in Nigeria for decades. Most major technology and telecom firms in Nigeria are headquartered and do most of their business in Lagos. The entrepreneurial environment and the open support for technology informed this administration's increasing focus in innovation in a bid to drive value outputs for this ecosystem.   This administration's contribution is evidenced in the different implementations and initiatives contained in Lagos States' first Innovation and Technology Masterplan; a plan that was launched during the first edition of this AOT event showcase. The masterplan contains multiple strategic pillars which cascade in multiple tactical initiatives.   Since the first AOT gathering, we have ignited the Lagos State Science Research and Innovation Council, a body consisting of private and public sector professionals tasked with intervening directly in the ecosystem through funding. The result to date has seen over 60 startups receive funding of between 5,000 and 12,000 dollars in the past 2 years. This funding constituted some of the initial runway rounds for startups that have gone to raise millions of dollars in funding. LASRIC gave many of these startups their initial funding opportunities.   In deepening internet penetration, we have concluded over 2,900km of optic fibre deployment across the state. This has connected about 100 schools. We have partnered with some telcos that are using our installed fibre optic ducts to power their 5G based stations. As you well know MTN launched its 5G service this year. The ducts we have installed has further enabled significant de-risking of this telco infrastructure market.   In the past 1 year, Lagos has attracted over 1 billion dollars in Data centre investment. This will enable the local domicile of digital platforms as well as open our State for more digital technology opportunities. The proliferation of these investments also presents opportunities for talent development within this ecosystem.   Our Smart City implementation has seen us deploy over 600 Smart Intelligent Video Surveillance Cameras as well as Intelligent Transportation Cameras for Traffic monitoring and management. Over the past year, through our initial ITS pilot deployment leveraging our Automatic number plate recognition cameras, monitoring of violation infractions has reduced VIO in person enforcement by 30%. Basically, in person enforcement that usually leads to issues with officers has reduced. This implementation continues.   We have begun a significant identity management program through our Lagos State Residents Registration Agency that will seek to identify all our inhabitants. Current projections state that Lagos will have 30million inhabitants by 2035. It is imperative to drive the identity management ecosystem for a smarter city. This will lend to more efficient resource allocation and planning for the state. LASSRA has undergone a fundamental restructuring of its operational model. With a new digital identification card with capabilities that enable access to benefits, electronic ticketing and so on, it further drives the digital inclusion benchmark for Lagos. Currently about 6.5 million residents have been captured. We are targeting another 10million within the next year   In education, through the Eko Excel Project, we are digitizing the learning experience for both teachers and students. Through the introduction of smart devices and experiences. The EkoExcel projects seeks to raise learning outcomes in students by multiple percentage points. Currently the ministry of Education is running new Comprehensive School Curriculum in about 100 schools. The Curriculum contains new subjects such as digital courses in coding and robotics, This is with the aim to drive more industry standard learning experiences from a younger age.   Through our Lagos State Employment Trust fund, we have funded the digital skills training interventions for more than 4000 beneficiaries. Courses include digital marketing, coding and other innovation courses. These digital skills training are needed capacity interventions that lend positively to the development of the ecosystem.   Ladies and gentlemen, the aforementioned initiatives and many more are testament to the increasing support and enablement from this administration of the ecosystem for greater economic value.   However, we must recognize and acknowledge the existential challenges the ecosystem faces. Today's theme deals with the fundamental issue underpinning the development of our value creating ecosystem, the talent shortage. Nigeria graduates about 70% less STEM graduates than OECD countries. Out of the STEM students that are graduated, about 2 in 4 migrate to environments with better infrastructure and opportunities to suite their talents.     Today we hope to once again co-create the strategies and tactical initiatives that will deepen talent output and development in this sector. The talent challenges are global, it is especially acute in developing nations. We hope that today and tomorrow will contribute to a turning point in the talent conversation in our environment.
In final note Mr Olatunbosun Alake special on innovation and technology said that three up to five engineer always having it in mind to migrate and not thinking of solution but today is about finding solutions and alternative terms that high and quoting one of the speaker said that he does not see japa as an issuerather is an opportunity to export talent.
Managing director BDTask limited ( Bangladesh) MR Sumch Tarik promised to support every good idea that will promote going talent in Nigeria to bring development just to develop Nigeria in global market and also praise the event and wish the young talent people will come out and embrace the idea.


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PRINCESS LOVELINE AGBONIFO