NATIONAL YOUTH CONFERENCE 2026 SOUTHWEST DAY 2 – Transcript

00:00transformation, entrepreneurship and job creation. And to close it, the third one where I Joshua Alad was on education and seven star skills for the future. So we had a lot. We had people contribute from all across the world and today would not be an exception. Today we have lineups of British speakers again that would teach that would let us know what exactly is happening and at the end of

00:25the day I know that we would all had a fabulous time. Right. Please we today we would move and have some other speakers and please just hold on be patient with us and let's do this together in a great way. I can see people from all across Nigeria state or state or your state. I've seen I can see you all dropping.

00:50Welcome. Drop in your names. Dropping your details in the chat room. Please keep it coming. We want to know you. We want to meet you. We already have over 500 people in the room now. And we know that we'd definitely have more than this. So to move on now we will be having the context setting the first one for today which is a fourth in the series because he had three yesterday and I would want Fatima to take over to

01:18introduce a person who will be taking us on today's uh context. Thank you over to you Fatima. >> Um thank you very much. Um as for our context setting for technology innovation and digital transformation, we would want it is now time for us to explore how technology and innovation can create new opportunities for young

01:44people because technology is transforming how we learn, how we work, communicate and conduct all our businesses. However, many young people state still face um challenges relating to this internet access, digital skills, electricity, access to devices and opportunities to participate in the digital economy. So as we begin this discussion, I encourage us to consider how Nigeria can make digital

02:11opportunities like more accessible, support young innovators and entrepreneurs and prepare young people for emerging technologies including the artificial intelligence that is AI. It is my pleasure to invite um Mr. Fortune Toma Esquire to deliver the contest setting um presentation on this topic.

02:33Um and I would like to read from his um from his uh profile. It says Fortune Toma is the regional director at Gove Tech Africa where he leads the organization strategic direction and operations overseeing technology solutions digital transformation advisory and capacity building initiatives for the public sector. He is

02:59passionate about leveraging technology to strengthen public institutions, improve service delivery, and advance digital firsthand governance across Africa. In this capacity, he is currently supporting Nigeria's Bureau of Public Service Reforms in the delivery of the 2026 federal government score card for ranking MDA websites, a project that has been his has seen his

03:25organization deploy of an automated digital assessment tool at last to promote evidence-based evaluation and performance tracking of digital government government maturity. So in partnership with the house of reps and the national assembly library trust fund he also convened the maiden of um the maiden national go

03:49tech policy round table 2026 bringing together policy makers public officials private sector leaders and development partners to advance practical pathways for advancing a digital first Nigerian government. when he is not on the digital government train. Fortune is an energy attorney and policy practitioner.

04:11He is committed to advancing technologydriven governance and creating opportunities for young people to contribute meaningfully to Africa's digital um future. Please uh join me in welcoming Barista Toma. You are welcome sir. The floor is yours.

04:30>> Good morning. >> Good morning. >> Good morning. Confirm you can hear me please. >> Yes, I can hear you. We can hear you. >> Okay. I I heard you. You tried to say Mr. then you changed changed to barrista. You can call me Mr. Toma Fortune.

04:45Good morning. I can see we have a full house. And um I think first a thank you to the organizers from the Federal Ministry of Youth Development to all of all the persons here. Daniel, Fatima, I don't know all the names, but thank you for the opportunity to be here. Please, I think I'm sharing my screen.

05:10I don't know if if that is still the case, or do I need to reshare? >> And you can share it from your side, please. >> Okay. Okay.

05:29>> Yes. >> You can see my screen. Yes. >> Okay. So, so um thank you very much. I understand uh you have the first 20 minutes to to do some sort of context setting and and kudos to the work you're doing in a country like Nigeria where you have a predominantly youth population. Having

05:56conversations like this goes without saying, you know, it's one of those very important things that have or that has a direct correlation with um economic growth, development. So, I'm happy to be leading this conversation. I expect it to be as interactive as possible.

06:16It's is for me as much as possible. I'm a young Nigerian, a youth like everyone and many persons on this call. So I expect that through the course of the conversation we will take the opportunity to discuss understand what the issues are and set out actionable recommendations pathways for us to see in Nigeria that that's working for young Nigerians

06:43particularly for this session bridging the digital opportunity gap. So I've I've titled the presentation young Nigerians and the digital opportunity gap. I cannot hear from participants at this time. So please organizers I would prove your indulgence to call my attention to to whatever time perhaps you anybody can hear me or my screen can no longer be seen.

07:10So yes so get into it. Fortune to is my name. I'm a lawyer an energy lawyer as I'd like to say. I'm a technology seuite executive. What we focus on within my organization is technology but not just technology, technology for the public sector. We believe that there's a lot of opportunity in there. Uh the the public

07:35sector's technology will be powered by people and youths for instance have very significant place to play in that ecosystem. So please I'll be speaking at least on the basis of some of the background that I come from and some of the things that we're already doing and hopefully I'll look forward to the interaction during after this presentation. So basically

08:01what we're looking at is around the context setting for technology innovation and digital transformation. I want to summarily look at assets. We'll look at skills. We'll look at public trust because there's no technology conversation without trust.

08:19Then we'll look at opportunity and the way the way we are going to look at every aspect of this presentation. We'll look at it from both the opportunity side of things as well as highlighting what the challenges seem to be. So I'll keep it straightforward, simple, and no fault in interaction from everyone. Am I still being followed? Please confirm. So we'll proceed with the the presentation straight.

08:49Please be good to hear feedback. Fatima, are you there? Can someone just let me know that we're on course? >> Yes, please proceed. Yeah, thank you. >> Are you thumbs up going up for you already?

09:04>> Oh, I I can't Okay, maybe I can't see that from my screen. I'm trying to look at the slides. No problem. >> I follow. But yeah, it's it's a pleasure. I see is the very full house several hundred Nigerian youths um just from mostly the southwest so we'll try as much as possible I think the first thing to even say is that technology the the technology is uniquely a Nigerian problem so but of course we'll try as much as possible to speak to some of the pecularities within the southwest

09:31considering the realities that may be different from some of the other regions um of the country. So in terms of an agenda for this slides, I've looked at it around seven themes which eventually asks one question. The question is who benefits from Nigeria's digital future?

09:50That's a part of the question and then on what terms do those benefits acrew. So we'll look at it around digital assets which is basically who is connected and then what's the cost? That's access. We will look at AI and emerging technologies which is the talk of the town. So and and we look at the Nigerian pecularities the need to to

10:14utilize AI applications you know to cover up or to to supplement some of the challenges we have around AI that we may not be favorably advantaged for. So we also looked at skill we look at skills and employment because in the tech ecosystem you you have to know what you're doing. We'll look at the

10:39ecosystem in the innovation ecosystem which is pathways from idea to market. We look at cyber security in fact we will look at cyber security data protection and digital rights as one combined conversation because at the end of the day you have to be safe online if you're using technology.

10:59Your data has to be protected if you're online and of course where the instances arise that your data is not protected your digital rights have to come in handy to ensure that trust security is not traded away because of technology. So we'll go straight into the slide.

11:23Um so first of all digital access. Let's begin with digital access. Connectivity is growing fast but cost, power and rural coverage decide who gets online. So basically the opportunity stands with connectivity for digital access. And if you look at the data from the Nigerian Communications Commission um between