The two-day fair will showcase leading technology innovations that cut across different aspects of life, such as Artificial Intelligence, Contactless Payments, Cybersecurity, Cloud Computing, FinTech, Data Analytics, Financial Intelligence, and communication technologies. The event will feature pitch sessions to identify innovative startups, panel discussions, masterclasses and exhibitions.

Among the plethora of events lined up, the event will feature a welcome address by Jim Ovia, Founder and Chairman of Zenith Bank and opening remarks by Dr. Ebenezer Onyeagwu, Group Managing Director of Zenith Bank Plc and Chairman, Body of Banks’ CEOs, Nigeria, and Dame (Dr.) Adaora Umeoji, Deputy Managing Director of Zenith Bank Plc.

READ ALSO: How troops foiled attack on Yobe gov’s convoy in Borno –DHQ

There will also be a goodwill message by the Minister of Communication, Innovation & Digital Economy, Dr. Bosun Tijani and a presentation by Dr. Doris Anite,  Minister of Industry, Trade & Investment, amongst others.

The keynote address, “Artificial Intelligence – Application & Bias”, will be delivered by Chris Lu, a renowned IT Specialist, business strategist and Managing Director for Huawei Technologies, Nigeria.

Other prominent IT practitioners who represent top global brands will make presentations.

These include Demola Sanusi, Solutions Architect, Amazon Web Services; Temitope Aladenusi, Partner & Leader Cybersecurity, Deloitte; Andrew Uaboi, Vice President/Cluster Head, Visa West Africa; Dr. Blaise Ijebor, Director of Risk Management, CBN; Keelan Singh, Head, UiPath EMEA Banking and Financial Services; Shweta Juneja, Partner, McKinsey Digital; Wole Odeleye, Financial Services Technology Lead, Microsoft; Ope Ajayi, Founder & CEO, Cinemax; Elo Umeh, Managing Director of Terragon.

The fair will also feature two-panel discussions that will holistically explore the growth prospects for digital payments technology in an ever-growing financial landscape.

The first panel which will examine “The next frontier: Digital Wallets, Contactless payments and BNPL (Buy Now Pay Later)”, has Chris Lu as the host, with five discussants, including Fey Wong, Country Director, Palmpay; Premier Oiwoh, Managing Director, NIBSS; Vincent Ogbunude, Managing Director, Verve; Ebehijie Momoh, Country Manager, MasterCard, and Managing Director of Network International, Adelola Agbebiyi.

The second panel will explore the theme, “The intersection of Fintech, eCommerce and SMEs – Collaboration for growth”.

It will be hosted by John Obidi and has five discussants, including Prince Nnamdi Ekeh, Chief Executive Officer, Konga; Tunde Kehinde, Managing Director, Lydia; Stan Martins, Regional Director, Meta; John Obaro, Chief Executive Officer, SystemSpecs, and Seyi Banigbe, Founder of Bland2Glam.

The first edition of the Zenith Tech Fair was held on November 27, 2019, at the Landmark Events Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos. Tagged ‘Future Forward,’ the fair featured a hackathon that produced ten winners, including Octave Analytics Limited, who won the grand prize of N10m.

The second edition of the Zenith Tech Fair, which was held on November 22 and 23, 2022, at the Eko Convention Centre, Eko Hotel and Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos, with the theme “Future Forward 2.0” also featured a hackathon which produced ten finalists with the 1st place winner, Ecotutu – a cleantech company making cooling affordable and accessible for businesses, carting home N20 million.

To register and participate, visit www.zenithbank.com/techfair.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email.

The fair will be live on Zoom for participation and streamed on the bank’s social media pages, including YouTube.

The post Third edition of the Zenith Bank tech fair holds in Lagos appeared first on Frontpageng.

President Tinubu was represented at the launch by the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr. Doris Uzoka-Anite.

The new initiative seeks to position Nigeria as an export hub for talent outsourcing in Africa following the example of India, Bangladesh, Mexico and The Philippines.

The unveiling of the programme took place at the Microsoft Office in New York, United States of America, on Friday, September 22, 2023.

A number of dignitaries from multilateral institutions and global tech giants joined the Ministers of Industry, Trade and Investment and her counterpart from the Ministry of Communications Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr. Bosun Tijani, on the occasion.

Among those who attended were Saadia Zahidi, Managing Director of the World Economic Forum, Mr. John G. Coumantaros, Chairman, US-Nigeria Business Council, Dr. Floriezelle Liser, President and Chief Executive, Corporate Council on Africa,  Amal Hassan, Chief Executive, Outsource Global,  Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency,  Adaora Ikenze, Meta Head of Public Policy for West and Central Africa, Ola Williams, Country Manager, Microsoft Nigeria and Ghana, who joined online, Joel Ogunsola, Chief Executive, TechDev, and Dr. Femi Adeluyi, National Coordinator of the programme.

Also present were Ursula Wynhoven, Representative of the International Telecommunication Union at the United Nations, Dr. Armstrong Takang, Chief Executive of Ministry of Finance Incorporated, Mr. Charles Murito, Director, Sub Saharan Africa – Government Affairs & Public Policy, Google, Mr. Charles Okochu, Senior Business Development Manager, Amazon AWS, and Michelle Masuzyo Nsanzumuco, AfCFTA digital trade expert.

In her welcome address on behalf of President Tinubu, Dr. Uzoka-Anite noted that the National Talent Export Programme was a key national initiative that would serve as a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) to position Nigeria as a leading global hub for service exports, talent sourcing and talent exports.

According to the minister, NATEP wouls serve as a dedicated entity to address the unique needs and challenges faced by the talent and service export industry.

The programme will lay special emphasis on enhancing competitiveness, fostering innovation, and driving sustainable growth through trade in services.

The minister further noted that NATEP was part of the strategy towards achieving President Tinubu’s agenda for job creation.

The NATEP initiative will target the creation of one million in-demand jobs across Nigeria, over a 5-year period.

“This initiative will do three things for us as a country. One, it will create millions of jobs for our young people over the next 5 years and beyond. Secondly, it will bring in foreign exchange that our economy needs through remittances from talents that will be exported abroad and those that will be living in Nigeria and working remotely for organisations outside Nigeria and thirdly, it will generate huge tax income for state governments,” the minister said.

In her goodwill message, the Managing Director of the World Economic Forum, Saadia Zahidi, said NATEP was a timely initiative to address the very important areas of skills and jobs for Nigeria and the world.

She stated that the WEF looked forward to partnering with Nigeria on the programme.

“This is an important programme that is coming at the right time. We at WEF stand ready to work with the Nigerian government on this great initiative.”

The Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr. Bosun Tijani, who praised her counterpart for spearheading the NATEP initiative, said his ministry would collaborate and support the programme to ensure it delivers on the set objectives.

Dr. Tijani explained the importance of talents and in-demand workforce as critical part of the global economic structure, saying such was the reason why leading countries across the world were intentional about attracting and retaining top talents.

Other speakers at the event also acknowledged how auspicious and ambitious NATEP is as a national initiative capable of changing the economic fortunes of Nigeria just like India that attracts over $300 billion annually from talents export.

The speakers commended the federal government on the laudable initiative and gave their commitment towards supporting the programme.

A panel discussion that took place during the event was moderated by the National Coordinator of NATEP, with Amal Hassan, Ola Williams and Adaora Ikenze serving as panelists.

The panel discussion attracted a lot of positive feedback from the participants and elicited their commitment to working together to support the NATEP initiative.

The event ended with the unveiling of the NATEP logo with the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment indicating to the world that Nigeria was ready to become a global hub for talent exports.

The post FG unveils national talent export programme for youth employment appeared first on Frontpageng.