As part of activities to mark the 2023 edition of the Akwa Ibom Tech Week, an indigenous technology hub, Ibom Innovation Network, has unveiled “Africa’s New Destination” as its top-rated tech innovator.
According to a press statement signed by the group’s publicist, Idongesit Essien, on Sunday, the event, which is scheduled to take place at Four-Point by Sheraton, Ikot Ekpene, from October 30 to November 5, 2023, will feature keynote speeches, panel discussions, product demonstration, pitch competition, workshops and breakout sessions.
The 2023 event, according to the statement, is spearheaded by Hanson Johnson, Amanda Etuk, Dr Odiong Akpan, Aniekan Ani-Ezekiel, Lawrence Akubue, Victoria Fabunmi and many others within the committee.
The statement also confirmed speakers and attendees for the event to include representatives of the Akwa Ibom State Government; leading members of the Tech Ecosystem; founders of Akwa Ibom descent; the Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kachif Innuwa Abdullahi; former Senior Special Assistant to the President on Digital Transformation, Oswald Osaretin Guobadia; Deji Sarumi of Tech Hive Advisory; the Programme Manager of Google, Aniedi Udo-Obong; Founder of Hotels.ng, Mark Essien; Richmond Bassey of Bamboo, Idorenyin Obong of Grey among others.
The statement further explained that the Akwa Ibom Tech Ecosystem has grown exponentially since 2015, “increasing the number of innovation hubs from 2 to 14 in the last 7 years. This has resulted in the training of more than 3000 innovators, with many more, triple that number learning informally at their homes and taking remote jobs in software development, product design, project management and business analysis.”
“Despite this growth, the ecosystem in its nascent and sprawling phase is facing challenges of poor funding, weak and unfavourable regulatory environment, inadequate infrastructures and an unstructured workforce for talents. The signals out of Akwa Ibom are positive and bright. This optimism is driven by decades of sustained aviation development, investment in power generation, road network infrastructure, security and a technology innovation ecosystem that has produced the best of talents on the continent,” the statement explained.
The Akwa Ibom Tech Week is bringing together industry players, regulators, innovators, government agencies and investors to achieve the following objectives: To define and defend the proposition of Akwa Ibom State as ‘Africa’s New Tech Destination.’ To galvanize support for actualizing the mission of making Akwa Ibom Africa’s New Tech Destination. To showcase the innovation, talents and products from out of Akwa Ibom state that are creating real value on the continent,” the statement concluded.
