Collaborative Investments in Digital Infrastructure: Driving the Growth of Nigeria’s Digital Economy

The digital economy in Nigeria is growing, and it is no surprise that public and private stakeholders are collaborating to ensure that infrastructure to support this growth is developed. Broadband internet, data centres, and other digital infrastructure projects are critical to Nigeria’s digital economy’s success. This is due to the fact that digital infrastructure serves as the foundation for the entire digital economy, allowing businesses and individuals to connect, innovate, and grow.

One of the key ways in which public and private stakeholders can work together to drive the development of digital infrastructure is by investing in broadband networks. Broadband internet is essential to the digital economy as it enables high-speed internet access that can support a wide range of digital services and applications. By investing in broadband networks, telecommunications providers and technology companies can support the growth of the digital economy and create new opportunities for businesses and individuals to participate in the digital economy.

In addition to broadband networks, stakeholders can also collaborate to invest in data centers. These centers provide the storage and processing capabilities necessary for cloud computing, big data analytics, and other digital services, which are essential to the digital economy. Investments in data centers can create infrastructure that supports the growth of the digital economy, foster innovation, and produce economic opportunities.

Furthermore, public and private stakeholders can also collaborate on digital payment systems, cybersecurity infrastructure, and smart city solutions. These projects can improve the digital economy, create new business opportunities, and enhance the quality of life for Nigerians.

Improving digital infrastructure can have a profound impact on Nigeria’s overall economic growth. For example, reliable and fast internet connectivity can help businesses interact with customers and suppliers more efficiently, encourage remote work and e-commerce, and increase productivity, leading to job creation and economic growth.

In conclusion, public and private stakeholders’ collaborative efforts are critical in establishing digital infrastructure in Nigeria. By investing in broadband networks, data centers, and other digital infrastructure projects, stakeholders can support the digital economy’s growth and generate opportunities for businesses and individuals. This will help drive innovation, create jobs, and enhance Nigeria’s competitiveness on the global stage. With joint efforts, Nigeria can establish a digital future that benefits everyone.

Tech Talent - Nigeria's New Oil? - Event Summary

Nigeria’s tech talents are increasingly being hired by foreign companies, resulting in the best talents migrating abroad. In recent times, foreign companies are now setting up developer outposts in Nigeria. Examples are Tech giants like Microsoft, Facebook, and now TeleSoftas – the European Product Development Giant. This was a result of their engagement of 5 Nigerian Tech Talents in the European Union funded program – Digital Explorers, designed to harness the potential of Nigeria’s digital talents and create further opportunities for their growth by engaging them with companies in Lithuania.

These local setups have provided more jobs within the economy, created linkages with the international community and encouraged more young Nigerians to stay back home while making a decent living. This has also shown that there is a huge opportunity that can be amplified and begs the question – Could Tech Talents be Nigeria’s new Oil?

The Orbra Company in collaboration with Digital Explorers and TeleSoftas hosted an ecosystem dialogue event aimed at exploring the umlimted potential of Nigrian Tech Talent for sustainanble the development.

The event had various stakeholders in attendance. This included, govenrment officials, private sector players, embassies, international development organisations etc.

The Event was anchored by Mimschach Obioha – Country Manager of TeleSoftas in Nigeria. The event started with a welcome reamark by Ololade Otayemi – CEO of The Orbra Company who is the Nigerian partner facilitation the local setup of TeleSoftas in Nigeria. He started by stating that Nigerian Tech Talent are know to produce better results when compared to their counterparts accross the world, despite the setbacks they face within and outside the country.

After his remark, there was a presentation from Mante Makauskaite – Co-Founder of AfriKo – a Lithuanian organisations and key partner in the exectution fo the Digital Explorers program. The program connected Nigerian tech talent with Lithuanian companies. She shared the motivation for starting the Digital Explorers program and why Nigeria was a country of interest. She also shared some of the challenges faced so far and lessons learnt.

Next there was a presentation from Kennedy Ibeh – a Nigerian software engineer working with TeleSoftas in Lithuania. Kennedy joined TeleSoftas through the Digital Explorers program. He shared his experience so far with the audience.

Following Kennedy’s presentation were two panel sessions.

The first session tagged “Could Talent be Nigeria’s Next Oil?” was moderated by Nkechi Oguchi – CEO at Ventures Park, Abuja. The session featured key players in the ecosystem; Ife Adabayo – SA to the Vice-President of Nigerian on Innovation, Bruce Ayonote – CEO of Suburban Fiber Company, Joel Ogunsola – Former SA to the Ondo State Governor on Innovation and Partnerships and Co-Founder of Tech4Dev, Emeka Igbeka – Vice-President at Vertex Software Corp, USA and Kenechukwu Chukwu – Member Service Maneger at Afrilabs. The Panel stated that Nigeria needs to begin to shift focus from oil and begin to take advantange of her growing youth population. With Covid, it as become much easier to work remotely which creates more opotnities for young Nigerians to work with companies across the world while living in Nigeria.

The second panel tagged “Nigerian Image vs Nigerian Talent” was moderated by Stacy Ewah – Program Manager by Code For Africa. The session featured; Usman Maaruf – Digital Economy Department of the National Information Technolgy Development Agency (NITDA), Dr Tobi Moody – Country Lead of the United Nations World Intellectual Property Organisation, Mohammed Jega – Founder, Startup Arewa, Andre Dada – CEO of Knight Software Solutions UK, Oswald Osaretin Guobadia – Senior Special Assistant to The President of Nigeria on Digital Transformation and Fola Olatunji-David – Former Head of Startup Success at Google who joined virtually. The panel share their various experiences as Nigerians in the international scene and how the public image of Nigeria as a country has affected them. They also discussed how the country can begin a deliberate process of rebranding and creating more opportunties for Nigerian tech talents.

After the panel sessions, Algirdas Stonys – Founder and CEO of TeleSoftas, gave a Keynote address where he shared his personal experience working with Nigerians at TeleSoftas and what informed the decision to setup a local office and hire more Nigerian software engineers.

Asides the speaker and panelists, there were other notable appearances such as; Mrs Yewande Sadiku – Executive Secretary of The NIgerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC), Mohamed Felata – Executive Director at Ventures Platform Foudation, Dr Sam Onipede – Principal Economist at The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Dr Femi Adeluyi – Technical Assistant to the Honorabile Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Andy Madaki – IT Consultant at The World Bank Group, Frank Okafor – The European Commission (EU) and many others.

The event ended with an outdoor networking dinner.

The Photos from the event can be found here.

A full video of the event can be replayed here.

Telesoftas Launches its search for Nigeria's Leading Tech Talents

The leading Lithuanian consulting and product engineering company, TeleSoftas, is set to expand its operations into Nigeria as it launches a physical outpost in Abuja. As part of its mission to champion product-led growth worldwide, the European company is on a quest to discover Nigeria’s most promising tech talents and leverage their creative minds to build innovative products.

For over 18 years, TeleSoftas has been helping businesses build full products from start to finish, including but not limited to UX / UI Design, Front-end Development, Back-end Development, Enterprise Mobile, and Web Application Development. Founded in 2004, TeleSoftas team consists of over 240 top-level experts, engineers, and designers, based in the three biggest cities in Lithuania, and has representatives in Switzerland, Amsterdam, and San Francisco. Founded on principles of networking, sharing, and open collaboration, the company works to create distinguished software solutions for clients around the world.

The decision to set up operations in Nigeria was driven by the success of the Digital Explorers Program (an EU-funded program executed by Ventures Platform, Nigeria and AfriKo, Lithuania, aimed at matching Nigerian Tech Talent to Lithuanian companies for a 1-year traineeship). The Digital Explorers Program resulted in TeleSoftas hiring 5 engineers. Having worked with Nigerian talents, TeleSoftas has come to realize that tech talent is the new oil in Nigeria and, as such, should be amplified.

The launch of TeleSoftas in Nigeria will open tech talents to more global work opportunities, inspire more foreign companies to expand to Nigeria, and promote cross-border trade, paving the way for sustainable development. According to Algirdas Stonys, the CEO of TeleSoftas “TeleSoftas expansions to Nigeria is proof of how much value Nigerian youth have to offer to the world and we are very excited to help prove that”.

The TeleSoftas Nigerian expansion is managed by a business development company, The Orbra Company, led by Ololade Otayemi. According to Ololade Otayemi “The move of TeleSoftas to Nigeria is a step forward in bridging the gap between Nigeria, Lithuania, and Other countries within the EU”. The TeleSoftas outpost in Nigeria will be led by Mimshach Obioha, the former Executive Director of Ventures Platform Foundation.

The official launch is scheduled to take place in September at a Hybrid event and will play host to stakeholders in Nigeria’s tech ecosystem. This event is themed “Tech Talent, Nigeria’s new oil” and is aimed at highlighting the promise and potential of the talent within the Nigerian ecosystem and how it can further be leveraged for sustainable development.

TeleSoftas is now receiving applications for Senior Developers to work from its Nigerian office at Ventures Park, Abuja. Are you a software developer interested in joining TeleSoftas? Apply here