Diamond Bank Plc on Tuesday and Wednesday played host to some of Nigeria’s techpreneurs and users for Techfest 2018.
The initiative from Nigeria’s leading digital financial institution Diamond bank was held at the Landmark Event Centre in collaboration with MTN, VISA, NIBBS, Microsoft, Interswitch, Deloitte, and The Beat 99.9FM.
Diamond Bank Chief Executive Officer, Uzoma Dozie, explained that the event is not just about the developers or the engineers, but specifically about how information technology is being utilised to solve problems and scale up businesses in health, education, among others.
He noted that the programme became necessary as a way of educating entrepreneurs on ways to derisk their businesses, while increasing their productivity and ultimately ensuring customer satisfaction.
Mr Dozie stated that Diamond Bank decided to educate its customers on the importance of utilising technology towards improving and securing their businesses.
He said the vision of Techfest is to drive technology education to people who are yet to embrace it for lack of understanding of how innovations work.
“We have about 3 or 4 million people that have opened a bank account on a mobile phone. You have to be educated to do that. Part of opening new products is educating people. The illiterate of the future is not the one that cannot write English or Mathematics, it is one that cannot unlearn what they have learned and relearn.
“To get on in this new life, what brought you to where you are today is not what is going to take you to where you are going. I have done banking for 20 years but I have done it in a different way. The new way of banking is going to be different. It is going to be done by artificial intelligence and machine learning and so you must be ready to unlearn what you learnt.
“The whole point of #Techfest2018 is to show people that you can do much more with what is available. We want a world where technology reaches the bottom of the value chain”, he said.
Speaking, Mr Yemi Saka, a partner at Deloitte, noted that his company decided to be a part of the event because Techfest is a first of its kind in Nigeria.
“It is impressive to see that a lot of technological innovations are taking place in Nigeria. Deloitte is glad to be a part of an event that is poised to continue to showcase what a lot of our young and vibrant people are innovating within Nigeria.”
“Often you do not get an event where a lot of these smart vibrant young people and the right organizations come together to provide an outlet where we can showcase innovation”, he said.
A representative of MTN Nigeria disclosed that the partnered with Damond Bank on Techfest knowing the impact of technology on its network of over 63 million subscribers and a vast coverage across Africa.
The programme had a discussion on big data, how it is taking over the tech space, and how it will impact on businesses today and in the nearest future.
It had another discussion on “angel investors”, who they are, how to attract them, and how to be prepared for them.
The two-day event also witnessed startups from the different hubs pitch their businesses for prizes.
Techfest partners, who expressed excitement about the success of the event, said it would go a long way in increasing homegrown innovations from the players in the country.
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