The House of Representatives has passed a resolution in support of a motion moved by a federal lawmaker representing Ibarapa East/Ido Federal Constituency, Oyo State, Honorable Oluyemi Adewale Taiwo, to encourage the Federal Government to collaborate with Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Nigeria (RAIN) – Nigeria’s first fully functional robotics and artificial intelligence facility – for training, research and product development in the area of developing robotics and artificial intelligence to tackle insecurity in the country.
The house unanimously adopted the motion and passed a resolution in support.
The lawmaker’s action at the House has been followed up with a visit to the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation to secure the support of the ministry to provide such an intervention grant.
Responding, the Chief Executive of RAIN, Dr Olusola Ayoola has confirmed that there are lofty plans in place including the construction of a Centre for Excellence in Drone and Unmanned Vehicles for Geospatial Intelligence, provision of training scholarships to the youths of Nigeria, particularly those from Ibarapa East/Ido Federal Constituency, and the improvement of AI Robotics product prototypes up to the required military standards.
According to Dr Ayoola, the move is a confirmation of Hon Taiwo’s stewardship and selfless commitment to the growth of technology in Nigeria and particularly his constituency.
He added that while the efforts of Honorable Taiwo are not common in this part of the world, it is not unexpected as he (Taiwo) was basically doing what a genuine representative of the people will do in order to preserve the indigenous technological firms in his constituency, promote their global advantage and protect the future of the youths in such communities through up-skilling.
Deviating from an age-long Nigerian tradition of simply waiting to import and consume any latest technology in the world rather than contribute to its development, Ayoola, as a young Nigerian in 2019, after bagging his PhD in Nuclear Robotics and working extensively with the UK government decided to return home to establish RAIN.
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Since its establishment, RAIN has proven to be world-class and has even attracted international students and recognition from the Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations Ms Amina J. Mohammed, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), USA and Canada missions in Nigeria, as well as First Bank of Nigeria Plc., Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), the National Institution of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (NIEEE), the Office of the Surveyor General of the Federation, the Federal Ministry of Youths and Sports, the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and the National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA).
Some of the groundbreaking research carried out at RAIN include unattended baggage detection, mini weather station, AI-based Traffic Light System, a ground robot vehicle and unmanned VTOL aerial vehicle.
Ayoola said, “The great feat which RAIN has achieved without any support from Government and this fact only makes one want to ask what an intervention grant will do to the growth of technology in Nigeria.”
Recall that as the year 2022 came to a close, the world was thrown into a frenzy after a US-based AI firm, OpenAI released a groundbreaking solution called chatGPTwhich could converse, reply text messages sent by humans and answer almost any question as accurately as if it were human itself and all-knowing. This solution even proves to have the capacity to write news articles, public speeches, academic papers, computer codes and can go as far as discussing matters relating to your local traditional recipes. Today, unlike a decade ago, countries are now competing fiercely towards attaining AI supremacy.
This is not surprising as recent events have proven that AI, Robotics, Blockchain and Cybersecurity have a huge impact on national security, intelligence, healthcare and food security. One can even go as far as citing several case studies within the war in Ukraine where AI and Robotics, especially drone technology and compute vision have made a clear difference between artillery and warfare intelligence. With fast advances in technology, there is no doubt that the next decade presents an opportunity for countries to redefine their future, improve on the quality of life, healthcare and availability of jobs through the needed up-skilling of their workforce and re-modelling of their industries.
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