Technology
Ilori Wants More Investments in Technology in Solving Problems
A technology enthusiast, Mrs Roseline Ilori, has reiterated the need for government at all levels and stakeholders to consider more investments in technology; not just software development, but in robotics, artificial intelligence, bio-medicine, voice biometrics and a host of other technology spectra.
Mrs Ilori, the founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Bridge57 Solutions Limited, made the call in a statement in Lagos.
According to her, such investments will shore up manufacturing competitiveness via authentication and traceability of goods and services and improve physical and cyber security, among others.
She said that government needs to be more proactive in making the Nigerian technology environment more friendly, seeing that the growth and young people’s interest in technology were massive.
She noted that Nigerian technology experts were the most sought-after in developed economies as the relocation syndrome had taken up to half of the country’s technology brains.
“The fact is that the environment we are in is not conducive enough for technology to thrive, so the government has to do more in that regard to bring out more technology to the fore.
“The ‘Japa Syndrome’ has been a major challenge affecting our human capital potential, hence, the need to grow more of these professionals internally so that when some leave, many more would be around to keep the country going.
According to the Bridge57 boss, Nigeria still lags earnestly in innovation as she submitted that, unlike the notion many are having, technology is quite different from innovation.
She noted; “In terms of innovation, we are still very far in Nigeria. For instance, while I had the opportunity to go through some training on innovation in some international organizations, I realized that many people talk about innovation, but very few people do innovation, as a lot of people don’t really understand what innovation means.
“For technology, yes, we are doing well, but for innovation as a practice itself, we still lag. Innovation is not just about technology, it is deeper than that. Innovation can be applied to processes, products, marketing and different areas of business models. But technology can use innovation; when people often mention innovation, people assume that it is technology, but they are two different things. They both need each other in a way to flourish.”
However, the technology expert also advised the government to remodel the Nigerian educational curriculum across levels to accommodate the practical aspects of technology to engender early exposure to the nitty-gritty of technology and innovation.
She said that the need to expose, encourage and sensitise the Nigerian child through the educational system from a tender age was due to the massive economic potential of technology and its ability to solve almost every problem across sectors.
“Technology as of today is beyond computers and smartphones as it encompasses a whole lot which, if youths are properly exposed to practice, can yield massive economic potential and gains for the country.
“We must, therefore, rework the curriculum to accommodate technology, innovation and robotics beyond the surface use of computers.
“In our universities, a lot is going on technologically that the government can take advantage of, but they must first invest enormous resources right from the universities to open students’ minds to the practical aspects of technology.
“More practical approach that is relatable to real life more than the abstract classes the Nigerian child is used to is what is needed to open up their minds to the endless possibilities of technology,” she said.
Mrs Ilori said that government funding, upon disbursement, must be put to good use to secure the future of technology and educate more persons willing to use their intelligence for the nation’s development.
She charged young girls with interest in the technology industry, perceived as a male-dominated industry, to take the bulls by the horn, even if they might be few, and assert their competencies and capabilities.
“Funding is key, and the cash flow is the blood of any business, and this is necessary to build innovation-driven start-ups.
Speaking on Bridge57 Solutions, where she had implemented diverse business initiatives and products for several organizations, NGOs, and government parastatals using strategic foresight, drive and determination, Ilori said the organisation was established to organise workshops, using innovative practices, methodology and tools to improve the Nigerian technology environment.
“I have been in the technology space for 18 years now in Nigeria and several other countries in Africa where we have deployed many solutions in the past. I decided to start Bridge57 Solutions because I saw that there are more problems to be solved in Nigeria and in Africa at large. Our problems are in abundance, if I can put it that way. But where there are problems, there are opportunities as well. So I was looking for the opportunity to solve more problems on a larger scale. That was one of the things that prompted me. I see there are lots of opportunities that would enable more entrepreneurs to be born.
“At Bridge57, there are two pillars; innovation and technology and in between them is digital transformation. Those are the two pillars our business is being built on.
“We have a lot of international partners that we work with that are technology providers. We partner with them to bring such technology that does not exist here. For instance, looking at voice biometrics, we have a solution in voice biometrics. It would surprise you that our voices are as unique as our fingerprints. We can use that to help people using services, but they are not very literate. Some people have problems with remembering their PINs, because they are not literate, and you see people that are not so literate telling people their passwords and therefore exposing themselves. How can we use that voice, for example, in terms of security, as we have a lot of security issues in our society?
“These are some of the problems that this technology, as simple as it might seem, can solve. Aside the voice technology, there is a technology that uses artificial intelligence, AI. There is a partner we are working with, we use AI to identify moving objects. It can tell if the person is a male or female. These are some innovations we do at Bridge57,” Mrs Ilori submitted.
By Dipo Olowookere
The Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer for MTN Nigeria, Mr Babalola Oyeleye, has disclosed that the telecommunications company intends to expand its infrastructure to give its customers quality service.
The demand for connectivity in Nigeria is growing, and with a new forecast predicting the Internet of Things (IoT) market to reach $38.7 billion by 2030, stakeholders, especially operators, are already positioning themselves to dominate the space
Government and private sector investments in digital transformation have created an ecosystem that includes system integrators and security specialists. Industries such as utilities and agriculture are leading the charge, adopting IoT to solve localised problems like power theft and low crop yields.
Currently, 4G coverage has reached approximately 80 per cent of Nigeria’s population, with 5G services already in major cities like Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, and Kano. This connectivity backbone is essential for the low-latency communication required by millions of connected devices.
“Reaching the $38.7 billion mark isn’t just about the numbers; it’s about the millions of data points helping Nigerian SMEs and large corporations make smarter decisions every day. Our goal is to ensure the connectivity is there to meet this soaring demand,” Mr Oyeleye noted.
As the ecosystem matures, the focus is shifting toward all-in-one solutions that simplify the user experience. With ongoing investments in NB-IoT (Narrowband IoT) and other low-power connectivity options, the next five years are set to see an explosion in smart city and smart home applications across the country.
By Adedapo Adesanya
South African-founded Refiant AI has raised $5 million to slash the energy footprint of artificial intelligence (AI) in a seed round led by VoLo Earth Ventures, a top climate technology fund.
The startup uses nature-inspired algorithms to radically compress AI models, slashing the hardware and energy required to run them. The new fund will be used to scale Refiant’s team – which already includes a former Google Cloud architect, a Cambridge PhD researcher, and an engineer with NASA experience – to build out a platform and to accelerate enterprise partnerships.
According to a statement shared with Business Post, the company is in active conversations with several multinational technology firms exploring how Refiant’s approach could reduce their AI compute costs while maintaining data and energy sovereignty.
“AI’s growing energy footprint is one of the most urgent and underappreciated challenges in the climate space,” said Mr Sid Gutta, the company’s co-founder. “The industry’s default answer is to build more data centres and consume more power. Ours is to make the AI itself dramatically more efficient.”
The company said it has already successfully demonstrated it can compress a 120 billion parameter AI model to run on a standard laptop, reducing energy requirements by over 80 per cent while preserving near-identical quality. It achieved this to run on a MacBook Pro with just 12GB of RAM. The same model would normally require hardware with at least 80GB of memory. The model retained 95-99 per cent of its fidelity, ran alongside a second AI model on the same machine, and the entire process took four hours with no cloud computing required.
For Refiant, its approach will help businesses reduce their carbon footprint and adopt AI to stay competitive. The energy required to process a single AI prompt on standard infrastructure could power roughly 100 equivalent prompts using Refiant’s approach.
The current breakthrough results were attained at the end of last year, and since then, the team have been gearing up to demonstrate successfully exceeding these results with further compression, longer context windows and model traceability.
“The AI industry is spending hundreds of billions scaling infrastructure when the real breakthrough is the ability to do more with radically less,” said Mr Viroshan Naicker, co-Founder and a mathematician with published research in networks and quantum systems. “Nature doesn’t build by brute force. Evolution optimises. We’ve applied that principle to AI – and the results speak for themselves.”
“AI’s biggest constraint isn’t demand – it’s energy,” added Mr Joseph Goodman, Managing Partner, VoLo Earth. “What’s been missing is a fundamentally more efficient way to compute. Refiant’s architecture replaces brute-force scaling with a far more efficient, nature-inspired approach that lowers energy use while increasing capability. That’s the kind of breakthrough needed to make AI sustainable on a global scale.”
By Adedapo Adesanya
Google and UpSkill Universe, Sub-Saharan Africa’s leading AI and business skills training partner, have announced a major redesign of the Google Hustle Academy programme. For the first time, the free training initiative is open to everyone, not just business owners.
The new curriculum is focused on equipping individuals and entrepreneurs with practical AI skills and comes at a time when small businesses have become the engine of Africa’s economy, creating over 80 per cent of jobs on the continent. To help them grow, the Hustle Academy was launched in 2022, providing bootcamp-style training on business strategy, digital skills, AI, and leadership. The program has since trained over 18,000 SMEs, with many reporting increased revenue and job creation.
Now, as AI reshapes the job market, the program is evolving. The 2026 edition is built for anyone in Sub-Saharan Africa, including employees, students, and job seekers, who want to use AI to advance their careers. To meet the needs of a diverse audience, the new format includes short, 60-minute webinars and more immersive, high-impact bootcamps. These sessions are laser-focused on putting AI to work immediately in areas like digital commerce, marketing, and growth strategy.
Speaking about the academy, Mr Gori Yahaya, Founder & CEO of UpSkill Universe, said, “The 2026 Hustle Academy is designed to close the AI Skills gap with hands-on training that is short, focused, and immediately useful. AI is reshaping how businesses win and how careers are built, right across this continent. We’re excited to renew our partnership, now in its fifth year with Google, combining their global AI leadership with our deep regional AI expertise. The next wave of AI leaders will come from this continent. We are making sure they are ready.”
The Hustle Academy initiative has strengthened digital competitiveness across emerging African economies by enabling SMEs to move beyond AI awareness to practical implementation, positioning them for sustained growth in an increasingly AI-driven business environment.
“We believe that the future of Africa’s digital economy lies in the hands of individuals and entrepreneurs alike. Our new strategy focuses on scaling reach by training individuals in the latest AI-centred tools and techniques,” said a Google representative.
Applications for the 2026 cohort are now open. Interested participants can apply at: https://rsvp.withgoogle.com/events/hustle-academy
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