10th December, 2019
Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu on Monday said Lagos State Government’s investment in technology and innovation is a deliberate effort to position the state as key player in global technology space.
The Governor said his administration’s financial commitment to Information and Communication Technology (ICT) was to make Lagos Africa’s foremost centre of innovation by harnessing local capabilities in developing tech solutions that would reduce the state’s reliance on foreign tech inventions.
Sanwo-Olu spoke while receiving the management team of Oracle Africa Group who came on a courtesy visit at the Lagos House in Alausa.
The team was led by the Group’s Country Director, Mr. Adebayo Sanni.
The Governor said the recently approved seed capital of N250 million was particularly aimed at enhancing young people’s innovative skills and empowering them to be tech solutions providers as the world progresses in digitization.
“Technology has gotten to a stage where we all need it to leapfrog and enhance accuracy in governance. As a Government, we have always promoted technology to take the lead and be a strong enabler for us to deliver on our promises to the people.
“We are taking steps to further collaborate with partners that will strengthen our capacity to be big player in global tech space. We just concluded a two-day Art of Technology where we announced the establishment of innovation research council and N250 million seed capital to support young innovators locally.
“We are not looking at what is going to be our immediate benefit by this investment; rather we want to create a robust technology culture that will give young people opportunities to explore their innovative skills in bringing about tech solutions and applications we can use to advance our service delivery.” Said the governor.