A Nigerian, Mr Kolawole Okuboyejo, joined 26 others selected young entrepreneurs from 15 different countries of the world to participate in this year’s Swedish Institute Visitors Programme in Sweden. The visitors’ programme which held between September 3 and 7, 2017, with the theme: “Tech and Digitalisation”, focused primarily on technology and digitalisation as tools for development.
Okuboyejo, who was nominated by the Swedish Embassy in Abuja to participate in the programme, after spending eight days in Sweden, said he was fascinated to be among other young leaders from different parts of the world who shared progressive ideas on start-ups development in their localities.
The gathering in Sweden, which had a unique feature of bringing together people with different cultures to create a global front in technology advancement through entrepreneurship, set out to achieve this aim by allowing the participants to attend the annual event Sthlm Tech Fest, bringing together nearly 5,000 people and thus the entire Sthlm tech community.
The group also participated in the annual programme that the computer game industry organises at Nasdaq, “Invest in Games,” where they met the relevant persons from the Swedish computer game industry. Visit to innovation environments like SUP46 and Norrsken, as well as presentations and conversations with KTH Innovation, Lund University and Invest Stockholm, was an eyes opener for participants to learn firsthand from technology experts.
As a result of the programme, many new opportunities for cooperation have emerged between the innovation environments, which could also see to Swedish delegation’s visit to participant’s respective countries for innovation environments and other advantages.
Another advantage of this programme is the organisers working in line with the Swedish government’s export strategy in order to boost the participation of Swedish enterprise in the global economy.
Other advantages of the programme to participants and their respective countries are to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship; building of a sustainable society and community; technology and digitisation; sustainability and environment development.
According to the organisers, the programmes at the Sweden event are tailor made to suit the visiting groups’ aims and objectives with visits to relevant Swedish agencies, organisations and businesses. The goal of the programme is also to intensify dialogue, greater knowledge exchange and broader lasting and reciprocal relationships between foreign decision-makers and Swedish industry and government.
The desired and expected outcome is an increase in exports and investments in Sweden with the vision to strengthen Sweden’s role as an innovation facilitator with the emphasis on global challenges in community building; develop a much-improved concept that features a format with an effective process for investment and export that also includes Team Sweden.
The programme is also expected to boost exports long-term, both in absolute terms and as a share of GDP, enhance Sweden’s long-term attractiveness as pertains to investment, skills and tourists, while also increase the proportion of export companies in the long term.
The target group at the conference are decision-makers, key figures and business leaders with a particular interest in establishing long-term relationships with Swedish actors.
While expressing his appreciation to the organisers and the Swedish embassy for nominating him for the programme, Okuboyejo said the Swedish Institute Visitors Programme availed him the opportunity of spending time in Sweden, where he got fascinated by the good mindset among entrepreneurs, while the traditional food and the exchange of culture were interesting side attractions at the programme.
He said the eight-day in Stockholm gave him the opportunity of gaining from his visit to start-up incubators, like SUB 46, Stockholm Tech Fest with knowledgeable guest speakers sharing their experiences.
It is also interesting to know that Stockholm was the first place for 2G, 3G and 4G mobile technology as it is currently working on 5G network, and may be first in the world to lunch this. Sweden is so advance in technology which it is using as innovations, while also using technologies as the foundation for the businesses and tech start-ups.
Okuboyejo said the programme also promoted Swedish culture and food, enjoying delicacies such as meatballs and lingonberries, kroppkakor, toast skagen, and even moose carpaccio was on the menu.
The delegation consisted of people from all over the world, who didn’t know each other, and Okuboyejo said it was fascinating to see how this diverse group could engage in interesting conversation without arguments on politics or religion. “It is wonderful to see that there is still room for open and healthy discussion without stereotyping,” Okuboyejo said.
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