An Information Technology expert, Olaniyi Ayoola has called on both federal and states governments to create enabling environment for technology to thrive in order to check rising cases of cyber crimes among youths.
He equally berated the government for its failure in taking full potential in technology, saying if properly harnessed, technology is enough to grow the nation’s economy.
Addressing journalists in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, Ayoola who is the Team Leader of TechSummit, maintained that governments at both state and federal levels have no business in running technology hubs, but must create the enabling environments that will make Nigerian youths take advantage of the advancing technological development to be gainfully employed.
The summit, which kicks off on Wednesday with the theme ‘Disruptive Innovation: Production and Distribution of Creative Content’, will have Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Professor Isa Pantami as the keynote speaker.
He noted that the majority of the internet fraudsters popularly referred to as “yahoo boys” are tech-savvy whose knowledge could be legitimately deployed to transform society, Ayoola also disclosed that redirecting the mindsets of these Nigerian youths remains one of the focuses which the Ogun Tech Summit strives to achieve.
“We have started the process and the ecosystem growing and we hope the government will see this and key into it.”
“Most of these people that are committing this crime are also tech-savvy. You find out that you could even make more money doing tech legally than doing it illegally and involving in crime.
“Check all these small companies coming up, they are owned by young people. It is the same amount of time that they use in making legal money in tech that those making illegal money also use,” he said.
Ayoola however, challenged the “yahoo boys”, to channel their energy towards technologically-driven innovations and earn money legally rather than fleecing people to amass wealth.
Ayoola said Nigeria is in nowhere taking full advantage of the innovation when compared with other developed nations of the world.
According to him, it is either the citizens are afraid of the government is not exhibiting enough sincerity in implementing policies towards the advancement of technology in Nigeria.
Ayoola said a platform, Digital Addressing, which is being worked on will address a long of challenges facing the country, including security challenges, but lamented that some people are trying to frustrate the process for their selfish interest.
He said, “as a nation, we are yet to take advantage of technology to improve and grow the GDP, if you check the rate at which other nations have developed and integrated using various technology, I don’t know what the problem is with Nigeria, probably the citizens are afraid or the government is not really sincere in implementing policies towards advancing technology in Nigeria”.
