By Deldavdan Afowha
The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has received 407 sponsorships applications
for 10 startup slots in the forthcoming GITEX 2018 slated for October 4th and 8th in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE).
In a statement made available to the media on Wednesday by the agency’s Head of Corporate Affairs and External Relations Unit, Mrs. Hadiza Umar, confirmed that the 407 applications were received by the Office for ICT Innovation & Entrepreneurship (OIIE), an arm of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) as the portal closed last week for startups vying to be sponsored to the GITEX Future Superstars (GFS).
The GFS is holding as part of the headlined events for GITEX 2018 from October 14-18.
She said: “According to the OIIE, NITDA plans to promote 10 startups to join their over 600 peers from over 45 countries at the Global Startups Movement in GITEX. This year, the themes focus on startups creating solutions addressing any of these problems: Smart Cities, Energy, Smart Construction, Healthcare, Education, Retail, Transport and Logistics.
“The country’s tech-ambassadors are being carefully selected by a team that includes officials of OIIE, innovation hubs and angel investors among others as part of the pre-selection processes and planning for Nigeria’s overall participation in GITEX 2018.
Startups, she said are a major feature of Nigeria’s participation to underscore NITDA’s agenda to expose the country’s budding tech startups ecosystem to global investors, mentors and venture capitalists.
The GITEX technology week is a five day event showcasing the latest technology trends. The event draws participation from over 140 countries every year and attracts more than 90 countries pavilions and trade visitors in excess of 150, 000.
“NITDA remains firm and committed to promoting technology deployment and building our local IT industry to world standard through participation in global events that further exposes the players to trends in the industry,” said Director-General/CEO, NITDA, Dr Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami while recently inaugurating the GITEX LOC as well as the LOC for eNigeria.”
Nigeria, Umar added, plans to promote three thematic activities this year on IT investment and exposure of indigenous tech companies. The activities are the Nigerian Pavilion, the Startups Innovation Hub, and the Africa Investment Forum (AIF) being put together jointly by the Nigerian government through the NITDA and the UAE government through the DWTC, organisers of GITEX.
“The AIF is designed to attract to investment into Nigeria as a gateway to exploring business opportunities in Africa, particularly the ICT sector. The AIF will be drawing participation from the technology business communities in Asia, Europe, the Americas and the rest of Africa.” She said.
Pantami said: “NITDA’s remains committed to its mandate to build a technology ecosystem that thrives on indigenous manpower connected to the global IT community.”