THE Nigerian Government and Chinese technology vendor company, Huawei are expected to sign an agreement on the much publicised Smart Cities project of the country.
Confirmation on the proposed agreement surfaced at the Smart Cities two-day multi-stakeholders international summit, held in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city and sponsored by Huawei in collaboration with Smart Cities Nigeria, Ministry of Communications, Ministry of Works, Housing and Power, Federal Capital Territory Administration and Ministry of Environment.
The Minister of Communications, Mr. Adebayo Shittu, said at the Summit that the Nigerian Government would partner Huawei, a global technology giant, in its smart cities initiative.
He said that the partnership with Huawei provide grounds to reshape the way public service is provided and managed in Nigeria saying, “More people now have access to smart phones. Experts said that smart phones users in Africa will increase from 75 million in the first quarter of 2016 to 512 million 2018.”
He stated that the Smart Cities would promote open data is one of the advantages of smart city, help to manage government resources and get more revenue for the government.
According to the Minister, Nigeria is a journey of greatness and together we will arrive at the destination of our dreams, and that in order to encourage competition among States and Local governments, the Ministry of Communications would soon launch the Smart City competition and to encourage them to take a bolder steps go the level of digital technology.
“I urge stakeholders to partner with the ministry to create smart cities in Nigeria”, he said.
Managing Director, Huawei Technologies Nigeria Limited, Mr Tank Li in his remark said the development and widespread application of digital technologies had transformed lives in a profound way, noting that data flow and economic development have become the big trends of our time; digital economy is a new form of economy in which everyone can share.
He said: “Digital economy refers to an economic system in which digital technologies are widely applied, revolutionising the whole economic environment and activities. Digital economy is also a brand new socio-political and economic system in which all information and commercial activities are digitised.”
Li further said that businesses, consumers and governments do business via the Internet, allowing for rapid business growth, and that digital economy focuses on commodities and services whose production, distribution, and sales all rely on digital technologies.
According to him, ICT will be the cornerstone of this digital economy saying,”We project in the near future a digital economy that will bring about enormous changes in society. We simply have no way of knowing how deep and far-reaching these changes will be.”
He explained that in Huawei, its philosophy is that the digital economy has three defining characteristics: All things will have the ability to sense, all things will be connected, and all things will be intelligent.
He revealed that in the future, devices will play the role of the “feelers” in an all-sensing environment such that “networks will connect everything, and the cloud will be the source of intelligence behind all things. These three elements form a synergetic architecture of devices, information pipes, and the cloud.”
He said, “This fourth industrial revolution is going to impact people’s lives in unimaginable ways and this will happen through the convergence of the cyber and physical worlds. The Internet of Things is automatic ‘smart’ communication between objects, through the internet.”
Isaiah Erhiawarien, West Africa
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