Tag: Akwa Ibom

Sometime in September 2017, the World Economic Forum released the Global Competitiveness Report for the years 2017-2018. This report which features the Global Competitiveness Index also sets out to assess the competitiveness landscape of 137 economies, and thereby providing unique insight into the drivers of the productivity and prosperity of these nations’ economies.

The 2017-2018 World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Index showed the ranking of 137 economies by their ability to sustain inclusive growth. It measures the kind of growth that delivers positive change and benefits citizens and the environment. The index looks at 12 pillars of competitiveness including Primary Education and Health, institutions, innovation, infrastructure and the macroeconomic environment.

Switzerland was ranked as the world’s most competitive economy, a position the country has held for six years. The report showed that the country ranked highly on nearly every pillar of competitiveness. Its economy is resilient, its labour markets are strong and its people and businesses are good at absorbing new technologies. Swiss citizens benefit from high levels of public health and education, while Swiss businesses demonstrate high levels of sophistication and innovation.

The United States followed as Second while Singapore clinched the third spot. Netherlands, Germany, Hong Kong, Sweden, United Kingdom, Japan and Finland, were placed in the 4th-10th positions. Sadly, the report only begins to mention an African country when it gets to the 45th position with Mauritius emerging as the most competitive economy in the continent. Nigeria was appeared in the 125th position.

But there is something very profound that this Global Competitiveness index did for me. It was after I took time to study this ranking, especially the import of the 4th pillar of competitiveness (Primary Education and Health) in advancing the economic standing of nations that I came to understand and appreciate the significance of an initiative that I was privileged to be a part of earlier in that year.

Sometime in July in that same 2017, I was privileged to be among the about 45 Akwa Ibom citizens who volunteered to undertake an independent fact-finding tour to one of the oldest and strategic General Hospitals in Akwa Ibom – The Etinan General Hospital, Etinan.

Our mission was to confirm the veracity of the claims made by the Governor Udom Emmanuel led administration that the Government had totally reconstructed and fully equipped the Etinan General hospital which had been hitherto branded by a lot of Akwa Ibom people as a deathtrap.

When we arrived at the hospital, we were greeted by an array of reconstructed blocks within the hospital premises. The internal roads within the hospital had been constructed as well. But then, aware that fine buildings alone do not make a hospital worth its name, I told myself that I will only give my entire impression of the entire effort after I had seen what the interior of hospital looks like after the effort.

With the Chief Medical Superintendent of the hospital, Dr. Ime Eshiett as our tour guide, we were conducted round the entire hospital. From the Accident & Emergency unit, to the Out Patient Department, OPD, hospital theatre, male, female and children wards, drug store and administrative offices, the interior of the entire hospital had showed signs of a complete overhaul of the hospital. I was pleasantly surprised to find some automated beds with ultra-sound scanners in the same hospital that was once branded as a deathtrap.

And since I do know that the most appropriate segment of people to talk about how this new effort has impacted on the lives of the people are the patients and caregivers. I sought to speak to the patients.

Mrs. Abigail Umoh, a teacher in one of the public secondary schools told me she only came to the hospital to deliver the baby after she heard that the hospital had been totally reconstructed and functionally equipped. In her words “I only decided to register for my antenatal when I arrived here to confirm what I have been hearing about that this hospital has been rebuilt and fully equipped. This is my third child. When I gave birth to the other two, this hospital was a deathtrap. I could not have taken the risk of delivering my two children in this hospital back then, as the place was not worthy to be called a hospital. I had to undergo the antenatal and also gave birth to my first two children in Uyo. Thankfully, this present Government has seen the need to reconstruct this hospital and that has restored my confidence in the health facility.”

After that tour in June, I did not give much thought to the implication of the effort by Governor Udom Emmanuel to completely reconstruct and functionally equip this hospital until I came across the 2017 Global Competitiveness Report in September. The discovery that the commitment by any government in expanding and ensuring access to quality health care by her citizens was one of the most important pillars that defines the nation’s standing in Global Competitiveness ratings forced me to take more than a passing interest in the healthcare delivery sector in my state.

From that time, I made deliberate efforts to not only follow whatever effort the present Government in Akwa Ibom state was making to expand the access to quality healthcare for our people, but also dig out information on the efforts of Governor Udom Emmanuel in this important sector.

Interestingly, my findings show that Etinan General Hospital is just one out of the many healthcare facilities in Akwa Ibom State enjoying this complete reconstruction and total reequipping by the Governor Udom Emmanuel-led administration.

Shortly after he assumed duties as the Executive Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Governor Emmanuel turned his attention to the popular St. Luke’s Hospital, Anua, where he succeeded in giving the hospital a commendable facelift. This effort at Saint Luke’s Hospital produced a brand new Gynecology Block named after Dr. Ann Ward, an Irish female gynecologist and Reverend Sister who once worked in that hospital. Although this health facility is not owned by the Akwa Ibom State Government, that outing by Governor Emmanuel at that hospital earned for it a total rehabilitation of the Administrative Block and Hospital Wards. Of course, those who have been in Akwa Ibom would recall that this Hospital, for a long time, has remained a reference Centre in gynecology and pediatric services. It is when views from this prism that one begins to appreciate the significance of Governor Udom Emmanuel’s intervention at the St Luke’s hospital.

As you read this, the General Hospital in Ibiaku Ntok Okpo, my mother’s Local Government is also enjoying the same good fortune of the Etinan General Hospital with the complete reconstruction of the Hospital. From what I gathered, the General Hospital in Ikot Ekpene is targeted too in the ongoing efforts of by this administration to completely overhaul and reposition the State’s public healthcare facilities. Also, not long ago, Governor Emmanuel had flagged off the construction of an Ultra-Modern General Hospital at Ituk Mbang. Strategically located at the site of the existing hospital at Ituk Mbang, the new hospital under construction is meant to service the healthcare delivery needs of Akwa Ibom people within Uyo metropolis and the Ibom International Airport.

What excites me the most about the commitment of Governor Udom Emmanuel in reconstructing these public health facilities is that these reconstructed facilities are coming to meet adequate modern medical equipment and deliverables earlier imported by the Governor for the purpose of equipping these hospitals. Akwa Ibom State Commissioner for Information Charles Udoh while briefing newsmen last year on this development had hinted that about 16 containers of medical equipment had already arrived Akwa Ibom State and these medical equipment and deliverables were distributed to these public hospitals immediately after the reconstruction in line with their peculiar needs.

Other bold and audacious moves made by the Governor Emmanuel administration in the Akwa Ibom State health sector include payment of Consolidated Medical Salary Structure (CONMESS) to Medical and Dental practitioners in the state with effect from June 2015, sustaining the Free medical services for children below 5 years, pregnant women & the aged, as well as throwing her weight behind the Continuing Professional development for Doctors which is a mandatory requirement by the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria. This development, I understand, is a prerequisite for the annual renewal of license to practice.

Governor Emmanuel led administration has extended his efforts at transforming the Akwa Ibom state Health sector to reach institutions saddled with the responsibility of training manpower for the health sector with the distribution of various intervention items and as well as provision of basic amenities to the various schools of Nursing and well as Schools of Midwifery in the State.

Just last week, the quaternary health facility in Akwa Ibom State, the Ibom Special Hospital had recorded a major feat in her operations with a successful neurosurgery carried out in the hospital.

It looks to me that Governor Udom Emmanuel clearly understands how a functional healthcare delivery sector fits into the larger picture of the socio-economic standing of the people he is privileged to govern. This thinking is strengthened by the fact the Governor was recently quoted to have said that the huge resources his administration was channeling into the results-oriented task of improving the State healthcare delivery sector is not an expense but an investment on the people whose mandate he holds in trust.

Let’s face it. Through these audacious moves in the State’s health sector, Governor Emmanuel is only providing an insurance of some sort to the people of Akwa Ibom since all his efforts at wealth creation, job availability, infrastructural expansion and poverty alleviation, will make no meaning without a healthy population people to enjoy them.

• Bassey, a Public Affairs analyst, wrote in from Uyo.

In a layman’s knowledge, Silicon Valley is a region in San Francisco, California, USA, with a high cluster of industries.  Contrary to the common notion that Silicon Valley is home to only world largest high-tech corporations like Adobe Systems, Google, Apple Inc, Facebook, Yahoo, etc, there are also many unicorns that are largely unknown like, PlayPhone, Quora, and Siemens. From a little area of semiconductor companies in 1980s, Silicon Valley has metamorphosed to a “global center for high technology, venture capital, innovation, and social media” accounting for “one-third of all of the venture capital investment in the United States.” According to data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, the economic growth of Silicon Valley outpaced the rest of the US including the country for five consecutive years, and Jessica Floum of San Francisco Chronicle, adds that it even beat China’s 2015 growth rate of 6.9 percent. The steady blossoming economy of California can be attributed to a number of other ventures like entertainment, agriculture, and energy, but technology and innovations make all the difference; from employment to revenue generation. Micah Weinberg, president of the Bay Area Council’s Economic Institute, says, “There are footprints of all major industry sectors in the Bay Area, but tech is the big kahuna.”

Matthew Mahood, president and CEO of The Silicon Valley Organization, can only be right on his claim that, “There is really only one Silicon Valley”, for two reasons. First, if Silicon Valley is only considered as a geographical location, and secondly, if technology, innovation and manufacturing industries are non-existent outside San Francisco Bay Area. Outside these two reasons, an analysis of the 25 most high-tech cities in the world by a data innovation agency, 2thinknow®, shows that London, Seoul, Tokyo, Taipei, Boston, Toronto, Beijing, Berlin, and lots of other high-tech cities are metonymical Silicon Valleys. From world-class technology-based, innovative and manufacturing companies to small startups, the world is not just exploring technology as a distinct venture but crossbreeding it with other ventures to produce a hybrid society. While many societies are still very technologically deficient and even worse than San Francisco before Don Hoefler first coined the phrase ‘Silicon Valley’ in 1971, the truth remains that the world has come to see technology as a basic necessity and everyone is making frantic efforts to meet the demands of this new reality.

Perhaps, the conception of Ibom Science Park and Akwa Ibom State University of Technology (AKUTECH) by the Victor Attah led administration was our first quantum leap. “I see certain things around here, [that] if I don’t do them, nobody else will want to do them. So, I go and do these things. For instance, I have not built a stadium, because I know the next governor will build a stadium. But I can go and build a science park, because the next governor may not think like me and want to build a science park,” the then Governor Victor Attah was quoted while speaking on his plans to build the Ibom Science Park. On AKUTECH, he said, “I know how much money the oil companies are paying for seismic data from outside. So, if I set up a university paying full salaries [so] that we have a research department that can handle all of those things, look at all that money that will stay inside the country”. As part of the plans to kick-start the proposed science park, the state government in March 2006 signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) in to establish a joint venture among Akwa Ibom’s science park and two Chinese companies-one a subsidiary of an American company, Technoconcepts, to manufacture and market cellular telephones throughout Africa. That would would have been a major breakthrough in technology for Africa.

As at the time Attah conceived the idea of Ibom Science Park, South Africa’s first accredited and leading science and technology park in Africa, Innovation Hub Science Park (IHSP), was just recently established in Pretoria, South Africa in 2001. Today, South Africa has about five world-class science and technology parks. IHSP is a major driver of the South African green economy. “In September 2013, the Hub’s Climate Innovation Center – with help from the World Bank’s InfoDev Climate Technology Program – embarked on a series of workshops to raise awareness of the green economy and the impact of climate change on marginalized communities. As one of the pillars for the Gauteng Green Economic Strategy, the Hub’s Climate Innovation Center supports innovative clean technology enterprises which build the domestic industry, increase climate resilience, reduce carbon emissions, connect to international markets and create jobs. The center also help entrepreneurs develop, transfer and deploy advanced climate technologies”, writes D.A. Barber of Moguldom Newsletter. The science park in Akwa Ibom would have been in this league if the “end of 2007” proposed date of commissioning was a reality. Sadly, as Attah predicted, his successor did not only abandon the Ibom Science Park project, but also distorted the original plan of the State University. That was a double loss to the state.

In his research work, “Science and technology parks: an overview of the ongoing initiatives in Africa”, Raymond Tavares reveals that, “The first science and technology park was established on the campus of Stanford University more than 50 years ago. This is the base of the success of the Silicon Valley well know today for its technological, financial, educational and research-based capacities”. Evidently, the park and the university have been critical to the success of Silicon Valley. Another case in point is Taiwan. Taiwan first ventured into science park in 1980 with the opening of the Hsinchu Science Park. Besides harbouring the country’s giant computers, semiconductor companies and leading place for innovative and knowledge-based activities, the Hsinchu Science Park has expanded and split into more parks. An article, “Taiwan’s Science Parks” reveals that the Hsinchu Science Park made a turnover of 1.04 trillion TWD (over 34 billion US dollars) in 2016. By December 2018, the Ibom Science Park would have been 11years old, and barring every unforeseen circumstance, that abandoned massive storey which is trapped in the bush along Itu Road, would have launched Akwa Ibom into the golden era of science and technology. So, the death of Ibom Science Park and AKUTECH was catastrophic and the loss, unquantifiable. But, needless flogging a dead horse.

Fast-forward to today. There has a been a science, technology and innovation awakening in Akwa Ibom in recent years. The rapid birth of ICT startups like Start Innovation Hub, Roothub, Hubitz, Xpress Technologies, etc, rising influence of Akwa Ibom social media and the increasing dependence of businesses on ICT. During the visit of Facebook founder, Mark Zukaberg to the country in 2016, President Buhari admitted that Lagos and Uyo lead in active social media engagements in the country. The rapid emergence and convergence of young techies and partnerships with renowned ICT firms like hotels.ng is boosting the ICT ecosystem of the state. This awakening could not have come at a better time than now. In today’s world, it is impossible to talk about industrialization without technology and innovations. So far, Governor Udom Emmanuel led administration has either facilitated or directly established manufacturing industries in State like the Jubilee Syringe Factory, Electric Metering Company, Akwa Ibom Toothpick and Pencil Factory. There is Akwa Prime Hatchery in Uruan and the rehabilitated Peacock Paints in Etinan. There is a place for technology and innovations in these factories. For instance, the Syringe Factory, which commenced production with 350million units yearly capacity, can hardly meet the annual syringe demand of the state, and the factory itself is still far from meeting the best in the world. With one or two technologies and innovations, these gaps can be closed.

We often recall with sad memory, the death of very lucrative industries like the Nigerian Newsprint Manufacturing Company (NNMC) in Oku Iboku, Quality Ceramics in Itu, International Biscuit Company and Sunshine Batteries in Ikot Ekpene, Qua Steel Company in Eket and others “too numerous to mention”. Till date, there are many unanswered questions over the collapse of these industries as well as strong agitations for their reactivation. As far as we are unable to properly address the situation with the defunct industries, our biggest worry then should be for the new industries springing up in the state. The good news is, in this age, technology has a solution to almost every human problem. When compared to other states in Nigeria, Akwa Ibom is already in a very advantaged position for any major breakthrough in technology and innovation. In his article, “Akwa-Ibom: From smart city to smart-state”, Chris Uwaje writes “Based on my assessment of the ICT landscape in Akwa Ibom 2016-2018, the state will be one of the most advanced ICT Smart-State in Nigeria and indeed perhaps the first to deploy Robots for Education, Health, State Security, Essential public service, etc for sustainable development (derived from her current advantages of small population of 5.4m, enormous resources and abundant intelligent pioneers with ‘Can-do Sprit’); Readiness for acceleration of robust ICT infrastructure development, with respect to State-wide Broadband Internet access, State of the Art Fibre Optics Network for state security and youth empowerment will unleash monumental innovation beyond basic imagination”.

Governor Udom Emmanuel has repeatedly affirmed his administration’s commitment towards providing an enabling environment for Akwa Ibom people especially entrepreneurs to excel. “We will transform the economy of our state via industrialisation and sustainable public-private sector initiative, thereby opening up opportunities for growth and improved living standards. We will use ICTs to promote entrepreneurship among Akwa Ibom youths to help drive unemployment and engender wealth creation”, the governor had pledged shortly after assuming office in 2015. The administration began by establishing the Akwa Ibom Employment and Enterprise Scheme (AKEES). The AKEES secretariat had since become an incubator for sustainable business ideas and the scheme has helped in transforming these ideas into very lucrative businesses. Ukpong Ukpong, a consultant to AKEES, says that the scheme has transformed many ideas into money-making ventures through training, knowledge transfer and providing necessary support, adding that many young entrepreneurs in the state . The Dakkada Business Forum is another platform that is breathing life into entrepreneurship in Akwa Ibom. Blessing Emah, the inventor of Ekpangnkukwo Flour, is one of the success stories of the Forum. Miss Emah first came to limelight during Dakkada business exhibition last year where she wowed the audience with her invention and went on to win a one million naira cash prize courtesy of the state government. Today, “Ekpangnkukwo girl” has become a household name in the state.

Utibe Akwa, CEO of Uty Trends, has been the toast of media in the state since she came public with her latest invention, Unique Milky Custard. Collins Oscar, another young entrepreneur in the state, recently convened the Akwa Ibom Entrepreneurs Summit, a first of its kind service and product exhibition by entrepreneurs. There has been an awakening of entrepreneurship spirit among young people in the state recently and this had led to invention of many local products. Technology has a big role to play if these products and services are going to go beyond local markets. I spoke with Hanson Johnson, the CEO of Start Innovation Hub, and he assured that techies in Akwa Ibom will soon begin to provide solutions to businesses in the state. According to him, the tech community in the state is presently focused on expansion through capacity building and equipping intending techies with the needed knowledge and skills, adding that once the current phase is completed, the next phase which is partnering and providing ideas and solutions to businesses, will commence. “The partnerships currently are that of capacity building and getting people started appropriately. The next phase will be for us to use the skills we have acquired to identify problems within our local communities and come up with solutions. So, the next phase of partnership will be that of investment and helping businesses get started and growing”.

Some time last year, the Speaker of Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon Onofiok Luke revealed plans to digitalise the Assembly complex. Part of the plans is to install Internet and personal computers in the chamber for all the lawmakers. The idea is to move the Assembly from the era where lawmakers carry files, diaries and sheets into the chamber to an era where lawmakers will be one touch away from whatever information they need during plenary and debates. This is a big step in technology advancement. The question now is, how well-placed are the techies and developers in the state to make them the most preferred options for such offers? Hanson Johnson reveals that the progress of the tech community is stalled by a number of challenges such as infrastructure and finance, adding that how soon they surmount these challenges will determine when techies in the state will begin to fully utilize their knowledge and skills. “We are looking at launching three startups this year; by next month, we’re going to launch one. A month after that, we should be able to launch another one. But if we have investments, the pace will not be that slow”, he added.

Almost every part of the state is in dire need of technological intervention. In health, the remodeled General Hospitals in Etinan and Ikono are a virgin territory. For starters, there is need to urgently push out the analog method of taking and keeping records to more digital methods in the hospitals. There are similar gaps in education, sports, security, tourism, transportation, etc, that only technology and innovations can bridge. The ecosystem of the state is charging with so much energy and the techies must therefore manoeuvre past their challenges to take control of these energies and create mind-blowing innovations out of them. Clearly, Akwa Ibom has never been more ready for a technological revolution than now.

• Udobia is a journalist and writes from Uyo, Akwa Ibom State