• Partners CIFCFIN on digital forensics
As small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) make up a huge percentage of businesses and economic growth, the Director-General, National Information Technology, Development Agency (NITDA) Kashifu Inuwa, has said digitisation of MSMEs will increase revenue by 26 per cent as well as reduce operating cost by 22 per cent, and contributes $53 billion to the Nigerian economy.
Inuwa stated this while giving an opening remark at TechMyBiz Pitch-A-Thon event in Lagos held at the Digital Transformation Center Nigeria (DTC Nigeria), which was jointly funded by the European Union (EU) and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.
The TechMyBiz Pitch-a-thon, which is a process of selecting Digital Innovations in Africa, started with a “Call for Digital Solutions” campaign that offered a platform for many innovators, entrepreneurs and startups within the Nigerian ecosystem to register their already created digital solutions from which 30 are expected to emerge as winners out of the 50 selected for the Pitch-a-thon, which ran from July 12th -14th.
The DG noted that digitisation is about operational excellence, using technology as an enabler for business efficiency, more productivity, increased revenue and cost savings,” he said.
He said despite the available opportunities, there are challenges that need to be addressed to realise the potential of digital transformation in SMEs.
We need to create innovation-friendly conditions in our country in terms of enabling policies and laws, government services, ease of doing business, and so on.
We also need to have support organisations — platform that will assist to digitise MSMEs for innovation hubs around the country to incubate ideas, because innovation is a process of taking an idea from inception to impact that means you can have an idea, and you can be innovative, but that is not enough, you need to commercialise your ideas.
“Then we need the infrastructure, this is important to MSMEs, but Africa is lacking in digital public infrastructure. Digital public infrastructure is beyond having connectivity and access to computers. The Second Industrial Revolution was about massive production, which requires enabling infrastructure for transportation, but today we are in the fourth Industrial Revolution, which is about digital services, therefore, we need the required infrastructure to aid digital services.
“Lastly, is the challenge of digital skills and literacy. The digital offerings require digitally literate consumers to benefit from the services, therefore there is the need to enlighten and educate the populace to acquire digital literacy skills, ” he said.
Quoting the DG of SMEDAN, Inuwa reiterated that MSMEs contribute to 96 per cent of businesses, 83 per cent of the workforce and 43 percent of the nation’s GDP.
“With digital technology SMEs can have an exponential growth transformation that will upscale businesses.”
He expanded on the need to have a digital sovereignty through adequate infrastructure, adding that the Nigerian government through NITDA is implementing the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS) to promote in-country skills to address these challenges.
IN a related development, Inuwa has assured the President of Chartered Institute of Forensic and Certified Fraud Investigator of Nigeria (CIFCFIN) of the Agency’s readiness to collaborate with the Institute on digital forensics in order to reinvigorate the tech ecosystem and mitigate cybercrimes in the digital space.
Inuwa gave the assurance while receiving CIFCFIN’s President, Dr. Iliyasu Gashinbak and his team at NITDA Corporate Headquarters, Abuja.
The DG, who decried the dangerous impact cybercrimes have on the economy of a country, organisations and individuals, stressed the need to build capacity for protection against the unscrupulous elements.
“Sometimes in our efforts to digitise services, we lose sight of cybersecurity and only think about security when there is a problem, this shouldn’t be the case, we should always design or digitise with security in mind in whatever we do – that is the only way we can be safe,” Inuwa advised.
Earlier, the President of CIFCFIN, Dr. Iliyasu Gashinbak, who highlighted the Institute’s desire to partner with NITDA on digital forensics and cybersecurity.
Apart from already mentioned requests, Dr. Gashinbak also appealed for support with computers for the Nigerian College of Forensics and Fraud Investigators (NCFFI), technical assistance to deploy their combined e-portal and e-learning platforms as well as Postgraduate Scheme/Scholarship.
The Institute President however pledged the commitment of his organisation in the discharge of its duties towards the success of the forged collaboration.
