Glo to unveil innovation hubs to drive digitalization- Bella Disu

Digital solutions provider, Globacom, has expressed its readiness to help drive the realization of the Federal Government’s digitalization agenda and enablement of technological advancement in the country.  

The Executive Vice Chairman of the company, Mrs. Bella Disu, who made this remark at the launch of Nigeria’s Digital Economy Report themed ‘Driving Economic Growth through Digital Transformation’ on Thursday in Abuja, also harped on the need for continuous harnessing of the transformative powers of emerging technologies by Nigeria.

The Glo EVC said, “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. 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”.

She added that, “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”.

Explaining that the impact of digitalization was already visible in a few sectors, Mrs Disu noted that “digital platforms have completely revolutionised the transportation and mobility services sector with ride-hailing companies facilitating hundreds of millions of rides in the last seven years, in ecommerce, 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″.

She explained further that 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,” Mrs Disu added, promising that Globacom would continue to support the sector.

The Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr. Bosun Tijani, and the Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Dr. Aminu Maida received Mrs Disu’s commendation for showing their commitment and political will to resolve the challenges in the telecom industry.

In his speech, Dr. Bosun Tijani, Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy stated that Nigeria is well placed to play a critical role in a connected economy with its huge population and resources.

He said “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 pour 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 duo of GSMA Africa and the World Bank presented the Digital Economy Report at the event.