With a population of over 1.216 billion people, Africa has more that 500 million people living below the global poverty line of $1.25 a day. Bridging the gap between the haves and have nots through technology was the focus of a forum in Lagos. LUCAS AJANAKU reports
Nigeria has been described as the world’s poverty capital. This is not for no reason. The gap between the rich and the poor has kept widening.
A forum was organised in Lagos to braisntorm on how technology can be used to reduce poverty, promote social inclusiveness, improve standard of living and realise the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations (UN).
An indigenous technology firm and technical partner to the Federal Government on the N-Power project, Softcom, which hosted the forum, beleives technology is central to poverty eradication.
Its CEO, Yomi Adedeji, said the firm was focused on addressing fundamental development issues tied to identity, payment, data and learning. He said these four pillars formed the bedrock upon which any development initiative would rest.
He said: “For any development initiative to be successful, we have to first solve the issue of identity. This is because a one-to-all approach at solving development issues will make little impact and limit sustainability. Individuals function within economic clusters or communities. It is important to take cognisance of these peculiarities in designing any intervention programme.”
The theme of the forum was: Combating Poverty: Role of Technology in Driving Social Change in Africa.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Job Creation, Mr. Afolabi Imoukhuede, identified six pillars — identity, digital literacy, education, agriculture, financial services and health — that would facilitate social inclusion and national development.
He added that strong government participation in policymaking, resource allocation and ecosystem development was required to fast-track development in these areas.
Imoukhuede lauded Softcom and other partners for their technical expertise in implementing the N-Power project, describing Softcom’s intervention as the ‘eureka’ that brought government’s objectives to light.
He said: “A traditional method of implementing the programme would have limited enrolment and training delivery to under 40,000 participants; however, with the aid of technology, the programme was able to enrol over 500,000 beneficiaries for the graduate and non-graduate programme across the 774 local governments in Nigeria.
“Nigeria now has a transparent, replicable and scalable model that can be adopted across all tiers of government and for all types of development initiatives. N-Power will expand into other connected economic clusters that will ensure sustainability and inclusive growth.”
The critical role technology played in the implementation of the N-Power project from the application stage to selection, training and remuneration processes was emphasised.
On the platform, Adedeji said: “We designed a platform that guaranteed transparent recruitment, and beneficiary verification, which ensured that no ghost worker existed in the N-Power programme. In addition, the platform enabled effective and seamless multi-stakeholder collaboration.
In his concluding remarks, Adedeji said: “In order to lift whole communities out of poverty and ensure inclusive growth, our development must be led by data and planning, not just ideas. We must take advantage of technology to identify and enrol our people into the National identity system so everyone can be known and verified; we must democratise quality education, ensuring equal access for everyone, and aggressively drive financial inclusion to ensure that money and the services associated with it are universally accessible.”