Reelnews Holds 12th Anniversary Lecture
admin November 20, 2024 0
…Inducts Five Into Hall of Fame
The management of wave making online news platform, reelnewsmagazine.net on Tuesday November 19 held its 12th anniversary lecture at the Sheraton Hotel & Towers, Ikeja, Lagos.
This lecture was themed: “Africa in World Shifting Geopolitics: Artificial Intelligence, Natural Resources.”
Speaking at the event, the Chief of Staff to former president Muhammadu Buhari, Professor Ibrahim Gambari stated that Africa must define her problems and find a way to resolve it, adding that the continent is not rejecting partnership, but that it does not have partners in the real sense of it.
From left: Director of Public Affairs, NCC, Dr Reuben Mouka; Keynote speaker, Dr Karim El Ayanoui; and publisher, editor of reelnews, Maureen Chigbo
Professor Gambari further said that change is taking place at a business speed across all spheres of human endeavours, and that change is taking place at an impressive velocity.
According to him, “the events of our daily lives unfold with rapidity that ensures that even before we accustom ourselves to them, they are already superceded by new inventions.
He expressed concern over people who are saying that development in communication means an end to geography.
“The world is evolving in such a way that it is not the end of geography or history, infact there are issues without borders. It’s up to Africans to decide whether they are concerned, it’s left for them to decide what’s next and go for the best,” he said.
Prof Ibrahim Gamabari
The keynote speaker, who’s also the Executive President of Policy Centre for New South, Rabat, Morocco, Dr Karim El Ayanoui, stated that what it means for Africans is to develop a caucus of knowledge to respond to their challenges in the changing the world.
Ayanoui, Vice President of Mohammed VI Polytechnic, spoke extensively on five key points.
Publisher, editor of reelnews, Maureen Chigbo
The first one, he said, is that Africans see the world from their think time.
“The second point would be what the mega trends mean to us. We should also look at African classes, megatron, climates, economy and digitalization.
“The third point would be what kind of good strategy can we pass on the continent? I’ll try to distinguish between middle income countries and low income countries.
“The fourth point is that I would suggest elements of a matter. For me, to survive, you can navigate on decisions, science, politics or better policies. The fifth point, is to say a few words about how Africa leverage this new world of change,” he said.
The keynote speaker said that today,
the intellectual of what we’re seeing is a world where there is fragmentation in every dimension.
He stated that there is a multilateral system in economic relations with explosions of protection measures, protection, protectionism, with the reshuffling of banking chains.
He added that countries, particularly those in the New South, are eager to cooperate.
On his part, the founder of Amai Technologies Nigeria Limited, Engr Shehu Tijani believes that demographically, Africa has one of the youngest population globally, which he said represents opportunities and challenges.
According to him, a youthful workforce can drive roads and can easily drive economic growth, can create jobs and bring about innovation.
“However, there’s a significant need for African governments to invest heavily in education, and training to be able to harness these potentials effectively.
“In terms of technology, the whole world is excited about the emergence of Artificial intelligence and the advancement in that area that can see Africa joined that trend of excitement.
“But we can’t immediately tap into that industry without first identifying the entire value chain of the artificial intelligence and later look into the entire supply chain.
“We have the designed part of it, we have the manufacturing, and then we have the testing, packing, and we’re talking about the manufacturing that is up to the semiconductor.
“So semiconductors are the electronic or devices or the chips that power those artificial intelligence. It’s so sad that these chips, these micro electronics, raw materials, are found in Africa, especially in Nigeria,” he added.
He stressed that Nigeria is one of the few countries that have a complete supply chain of any technological device in terms of raw materials.
He advised that the country must look at three, or four major raw materials, major components, the printer, which he said is called motherboard, adding that there is also the micro electronics.
According to him, “then you have this metal. So let me start with the motherboard. You know, it will surprise one of us here that motherboard, a good raw material, has been contained in Nigeria. They are proper. And then if you look at the chip itself, it is a silica sandwich and we have them in abundance in Nigeria.”
“What happened to these raw materials? You know, no one is utilizing it, no one is harnessing those potentials, we have foreigners coming into our country to extract those raw materials without adding any value, and then export them, produce the finished product, and then we are all excited to use those finished products.
“So before we can play a critical role in this industry, we need to start looking at understanding those value tree, produce it, and redefine it. We can’t just allow those foreigners extract our silica for export, at least we can redefine it here, add value, create jobs, and then before you can actually extract it, they have to add value before they can export them.
“So for Africa, the target is there, the basic parameter structure for us to be able to tap into that artificial intelligence, the technologies, are not there.
“That’s why we as a company, once we realize this gap, we try to build that gap by setting up the process, design and we will be able to produce locally, using our locally sourced raw materials to produce all these electronics and mobile phones,” he said.
In his speech, the Publisher and Editor-In Chief of Reelnews.com, Maureen Chigbo, said that the organisation carefully selected the topic of discussion with relevant expertises to do justice to it.
Chigbo then appealed to her colleagues in the journalism profession to ensure that the message is passed across Africa and beyond, adding that at Reel News, they will ensure that they play their part by giving it wide publicity.
The annual lecture saw Ms Beatrice Eyong, Professor Ibrahim Gambari, Ms Hadiza Bala Usman, Dr Karim El Ayanoui and Engr Shehu Tijani inducted and decorated into Reelnews Hall of Fame.