WWW Day Celebration: Stakeholders charge youths to leverage Internet for productivity

Stakeholders in the country’s Information and Communications Technology sector have called on Youths in Nigeria to leverage the Internet and be productive in their various field of endeavor, rather than Internet scam, which many people refer to as ‘Yahoo Yahoo’.

The stakeholders, while speaking at the World Wide Web Day conference, organized by the Center for Cyber Awareness and Development (CECAD) in Lagos, argued that the Internet presents a better opportunity for the youths to make a lot of money, without resulting in defrauding people.

For them, the Internet has completely transformed lives on an individual basis in many ways, ranging from the way we communicate through the way we socialize to the way we shop, travel and even do business. Thus, there is no need to be involved in fraudulent activities on the basis of the Internet.

Citing cases of young Nigerians making good money as a result of the opportunities the Internet presents, Mr. Frank Donga, an actor and tech enthusiast, revealed that he is aware of many young Nigerians who are making a lot of money in foreign currencies.

Donga,  explained that most of these Nigerians work for companies outside the country from the comfort of their homes.

“It is irritating when people talk of young Nigerians making money from scams. The real money is made from young Nigerians, who are creative in their mind, developing content and post on Youtube,” he said.

Frank disclosed of a certain young man in Ibadan, Oyo State capital, who is working for a company outside and receives a lot of money as salary every month, stressing that the world of the internet is vast, growing more and more by the day with people making good money.

According to him, success is all about knowing how to be productive as successful people are great at their jobs, but continuously learn and expand their interests.

This is what is lacking among the youths as they want to make it through the fast lane, which at the end of the day is not always the best.

The Internet is an enabler. With policymakers and regulators putting efforts to have grown broadband penetration from 6 percent in 2015 to 45.02 percent at December 2020, indicating that 85.9 million Nigerians are now connected to 3G and 4G networks, which provide enhanced high-speed Internet that has continued to boost efficiency and increase productivity across the economic spectrum. Young Nigerians have no more excuses than to leverage.

“The point is the Internet has given opportunities for emerging technologies, which can help businesses, individuals and even the government to thrive. But the fact remains that such individual or business must innovate,” said Tinuade Oguntuyi of ICSL at the conference with the theme ‘Creating Opportunities for a new African Digital Economy.

Tinuade wondered the attraction behind the Internet scam, when young people all over the world are capitalizing on the Internet to create solutions that are solving societal challenges in the field of health, education, entertainment and even financial services.

She posited that what just needs to be done by the government is to create an enabling environment that will encourage the creation of jobs and other opportunities for the youths.

The World Wide Web celebration was organized by the Centre for Cyber Awareness and Development (CECAD) as part of the global celebration to review the growth of the Internet, which has led to the development of digital technologies helping to transform the economy of the world in several ways, such as reducing information and transaction costs, creating new collaborative models to increase the efficiency of workers, promoting innovation and improving education and developing societies.

Speaking earlier in his welcome address, Dr. Bayero Agabi, National Coordinator of CECAD, explained that the World Wide Web Day is a global celebration dedicated to web browsing, online activity that brings a wealth of knowledge to people and societies.

Dr. Agabi, disclosed that the day was set aside as a chance to celebrate the way the internet has created an environment for collaboration and business growth while also taking a deeper look into its evolution over the past three decades since its invention by Sir Tim Berners-Lee.

At the Nigeria event celebration, stakeholders took a look at policies to grow the space and the Nigeria information society through creating a sustainable digital economy.

“Today’s event provides an opportunity to deliberate on the impact of the internet, review its usage in terms of security, entrepreneurship and innovation across all sectors including entertainment, governance, business transaction, tourism and many more,” Dr. Bayero said.

He stressed that CECAD as a Non-Governmental Organisation believes the Nigeria version will chronicle the impact of the internet, best ways to use the internet for good and economic development, its impact on the media, business, governance, youth empowerment and entrepreneurship.

The World Wide Web celebration was well attended by stakeholders from the various sectors of the economy, which is being impacted by the Internet in one way of the other.

Personalities in attendance either physical or virtual include the Director-General of National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), Engr. Aliyu Aziz, Managing Director Galaxy Back Bone Limited (GBB), Prof. Muhammed Bello Abubakar, President Nigeria Computer Society (NCS), Prof. Adesina Sodiya, President of ATCON, Engr. Ikechukwu Nnamani, Former President NCS, Alhaji Ladi Oguneye, Chief Executives of IT companies and other relevant stakeholders.