Three days of fascinating and insightful discussions at the ICTEL Expo came to an end on Thursday, 28 July, with a night of music and mild suspense. Guests watched, sometimes with bated breath, as individuals and organizations were announced as award winners for their outstanding work in various fields and different causes; in between two award sessions and after, they enjoyed the fine tunes dished out by the live band. It was a night marked to recognize class, and one designed to inspire the up-and-coming too.
It all happened at the Award and Gala Night, the final event of this year’s Information and Communication Technology and Telecommunications Expo, organized by the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The days before had been about serious deliberations on the bright prospects for growth that ICT affords Nigeria and the huge deficit in actionable data required to accelerate the pace of development in the country. But on the night, the guests were given the opportunity to let their hair down; the irregularly shaped graphical illustrations were replaced with floral decorations and frank exchanges with light-hearted banter.
The Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu also addressed the audience. In his speech read by his representative at the gala, Dr. Adeleye Talabi, Mr. Onu commended the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry for encouraging the growth of the ICT sector through avenues like the ICTEL Expo. He urged the LCCI to partner with the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology to support innovators and inventors from across the country.
Several individuals and corporate bodies were given awards in recognition of their outstanding performance in using ICT to solve real problems faced by Nigerians. The awardees included Slot Foundation (Youth Empowerment Project of the Year); the Nigerian Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) for the BVN (ICT and Telecommunications Project of the Year); Dairo Damilola Opeyemi, CEO Autofactorng (Young Technopreneur of the Year); Channels Television (Mobile App of the Year); and many others.
The ICTEL Expo brought together key figures in business and ICT in Nigeria, and young, passionate, entrepreneurs; this was in itself, a combination that had the potential to yield interesting conversations. And so it did. Ideas were exchanged, viewpoints scrutinized, and solutions proffered to current challenges confronting businesses in their bid to integrate ICT into their everyday operations and processes- all for the goal of achieving sustainable development for Nigeria .
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