Jim Ovia Urges Nigerian Youths to Embrace Disruptive Technologies

Chairman and Founder of Zenith Bank, Mr Jim Ovia, has urged Nigerian youths to embrace disruptive technologies to build the country’s economy.

Speaking with newsmen on Wednesday, November 27 at the Zenith Bank Tech Fair, Landmark Event Centre in Lagos, Ovia noted that the world was continually changing and that for Nigeria to move with it and grow its economy, hence the reason why Zenith Bank is holding the tech summit to support youths with disruptive imaginations.

“We’ve always had some form of technology summit over the years, but this is different from the prior years because at this point in time, the world has gone so digital and the Nigerian economy is being digitised where we have our youth creating new innovations like startup initiatives that we thought at Zenith bank that we need to support them, encourage them and empower them by way of supporting the various innovative ideas that they have,” Ovia said.

“We also want to support them in the area of disruptive innovations, disruptive technologies and we all know what disruptive ideas and innovations will do to our economy. That is exactly why we are sponsoring this Zenith tech fair, the Zenith talk summit.

“And we do believe that in the years to come we will build our own robust Silicon Valley, there is no doubt about that, as we continue to sponsor and support our youth to blossom in the area digital technologies, innovations, creative ideas, in entertainment, technology, agriculture and so on.”

The serial entrepreneur added that Zenith Bank will continue to encourage Nigerian youths who embrace innovative technologies as they have tendencies to change the world.

“That is why we will encourage our youth to come up with various technologies and innovations that are disruptive, that will change the old ways of doing things, to embrace new ways of the direction of the world economy. We are talking about Artificial Intelligence, creativity, big data, blockchain. And we have so many well-trained youths, well-trained engineers, IT practitioners, etc, that we need to encourage.

The Zenith Tech Fair showcased leading technological innovations across different aspects of life. Some of the areas covered were Blockchain, Big data, 5G, Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality, Quantum Computing, Communication Technologies, Robotics, Machine Learning, Data Analytics and FinTech.

Also, gracing the event were industry experts and dignitaries including Juliet Ehimuan-Chiazor (Country Director of Google Nigeria), Akin Binuso (Country Manager of Microsoft Nigeria), Eric Zhang (Managing Director of Huawei Technologies Nigeria), and Adebayo Sanni (Country Managing Director of Oracle Nigeria).

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