Record shows that civilization started in Africa, but something went wrong along the way. Africa today is at the back burner in terms of cutting edge technology as compared to developed nations such as the United States of America, Japan and China. To worsen this assertion, was the recent statement of fact by the US Presidential Candidate, Donald Trump that Africans Are Lazy Fools, Only Good At Lovemaking & Thuggery . According to him, the internet that Africans enjoy today is the hand of the white. This among other issues informed the idea of Mascot Information and Technology Solutions’ initiative to organize a two days event on emerging and life extending technologies with theme: “the role of emerging technologies in sustainable economic development in Nigeria’’. The convener of this initiative, Agbolade Omowole, who is the C.E.O of Mascot Information and Technology Solutions is bringing into Nigeria notable world scientists to chart the way forward on cutting edge technology. Speaker at the event include; British philosopher working on the abolition of suffering, David Pearce, Korea based artificial intelligence expert, Mira Kwak, U.S software developer, Micah Redding, and a scientist working on space colonization and founder of TRED laboratories, Christopher Jannette from the USA.. Technology is making Nigerians achieve better results from the automated teller machines (ATM), to online social networks, to mobile phone application developments and electronic commerce by leading companies such as Jumia, Konga and DealDey, Nigerians now enjoy home delivery services for products purchased online.
While there are improvements in ICT oriented services, Nigeria as a country, and Africa at large are still behind in terms of emerging technologies – genetics, nanotechnology, robotics, biotechnology and artificial intelligence. These technologies will radically change how we live our lives in the future.
Mira Kwak , one of the speakers at the event, believes that artificial intelligence can help in human creativity using artificial neural networks, decision support systems, and data mining to help industries, organization and tertiary institutions to boost and increase human creativity in Nigeria. David Pearce, another speaker says “If I lived in Africa, I would find it almost incomprehensible how people in the rich world moan and groan. But over the years, I’ve known a number of people take their own lives. The genetics and biology of suffering hits rich and poor alike.”
Dr. Ilia Stambler will speak remotely at Nigeria ICT Fest. He is an Israeli researcher on aging and believes that Nigerians have to understand the basics of healthy living if they want to live longer and better.
On his part, Michael Imolode, business development manager at Mascot Information and Technology Solutions says the event will help in motivating Nigerians to be a part of the coming technological revolution.
Partners of Nigeria ICT Fest include: Click Host Nigeria, Lumen Research Center in Social and Humanistic Sciences Romania, Dore Concept and Lumiere Multimedia Center Nigeria. EasyTaxi Nigeria is the official transport partner for Nigeria ICT Fest 2015.
