Bella Disu: Glo to introduce innovation hubs to promote digitalization

Leading digital solutions provider, Globacom, is in a vantage position to support the Federal Government’s digitalization strategy. In this regard, the company plans to start with the deployment of a learning management solution which can fast track training of at least 100,000 users within a month and also launch four innovation hubs across the country.

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The company’s Executive Vice Chairman, Mrs. Bella Disu, made the disclosure at the launch of Nigerian Digital Economy Report, “Driving Economic Growth through Digital Transformation”, by GSMA on Thursday at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel in Abuja.

Mrs. Disu underscored the significance of Nigeria’s persistence in leveraging the transformative potential of emerging technologies and Globacom’s plan to support technological growth in the country. “We see the current challenges in the sector as a responsibility to be at the forefront of enabling tech advancement. We are at the moment doing two things which key into the Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy’s strategic blueprint. Under the pillar of Knowledge, the ministry is planning to have about 3m technical talents by 2027 and also increase digital literacy”.

She further explained that “In Glo, we have a Glo learning management solution which has the capacity to train up to 100,000 users a month on different skill sets from digital marketing and other professional courses some of which we plan to offer as CSR and also on courses covering Python, blockchain, AI, to really push digital literacy.

“Under innovation, we plan to have four innovation hubs, with one to be rolled out in Lagos in the fourth quarter of the year, and three to be commissioned by the second quarter of 2025 in PH, Ibadan, and Abuja. We see these hubs as being an eco-system and a catalyst for technological advancement where we have hubs for tech enthusiasts, entrepreneurs, incubators and accelerators to really collaborate, thrive and learn”, she added.

Mrs Disu noted that the impact of digitalization was already visible in a few sectors: “digital platforms have completely revolutionized the transportation and mobility services sector with ride-hailing companies facilitating hundreds of millions of rides in the last seven years, In e-commerce, the sector has grown significantly with online user market now about 76.7 million users. We have also seen a huge growth in POS terminals from about 155,000 in 2017 to now 1.8 million in 2023”.

“More and Nigerians are going into remote work, and with the right training, they will be able to take up even more lucrative roles in the sector. In entrepreneurship and start-ups, through fintech and content creation and startups, the opportunities are vast,” she pointed out, and pledged Globacom’s continued support for the sector.

Mrs. Disu lauded the political will and dedication of both Dr. Aminu Maida, the Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC, and Dr. Bosun Tijani, the Minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, towards tackling the issues facing the telecom sector.

Speaking at the occasion, Dr. Bosun Tijani stated that Nigeria was in a good position to be a vital part of a global economy because of its large population and wealth. Said he: “We can only do that by diversifying our economy and strengthening technical efficiency. This is why there is immense focus on digitalizing our economy and accelerating development in sectors like agriculture and mining to improve quality of education so we can improve learning outcomes and as such deepen our workforce, improve on transportation and infrastructure so that our economy can get the backbone that is required to make it work for our people”, the minister stated.

The Digital Economy Report was presented by GSMA Africa and the World Bank.