Honorables Damilola Yusuf Adelodun is the Commissioner for Business, Innovation, and Technology in Kwara State. In a recent interview with select journalists, she revealed the new innovation her ministry and the Kwara State Government are initiating, and how the state is set to become a technology hub. ROTIMI IGE brings excerpts.
What is the purview of the business innovation ministry?
It was morphed from the previous Ministry of Enterprise. Before we were engaging in cooperatives, industry as well as business. Anyone that has come to do business or investments in Kwara State, that’s where our purview is. Of course, we are directly linked to the Federal Ministry of Trade and Industry. However, with this new portfolio that His Excellency changed, we have business, which still compromises what enterprise was before businesses that bring innovation, ideas and finding new ways of doing things, we also key into that. A lot of venture start-ups are like that. We also have technology because you cannot move the world without technology. Nowadays, business and technology are also hand in hand. Now we also have a direct link into the Ministry of Information and Technology.
Are you the pioneer head of the ministry?
I’m actually not. There were two commissioners prior to my resumption.
How have you been able to chart your own course as Commissioner to ensure you leave your legacy of impact?
Kwara State is very unique in the sense that it’s not about one person’s legacy it’s about the vision of our leader, which is His Excellency, Mallam AbdulRazaq Abdulrahman. Every Commissioner or Special Adviser that has taken up my role, it’s very important for us to work hand in hand. We all have a very common vision, and the vision of His Excellency moves with the youths. He is very big on youths and women. I think we have more women commissioners than men in Kwara State.
He is also very big on business and making sure that the economy grows. He is also very big on environment. You can see how clean Kwara State is. and in terms of roads, we have done countless amount of roads. I think if there’s a record, His Excellency would actually get the record of the governor who has done the highest number of roads in his tenure because he wants there to be accessibility in the state. If there is no accessibility, there is no trade.
In terms of legacy, I can say that some of the key projects that I have been very lucky to head is the Ilorin Innovation Hub. As in the name, it is more of a large ICT centre, the biggest in West Africa because of its size. We also have a partnership with IHS Towers, and there is a fund of about N1 billion earmarked for the running and for the programmes, training, as well as start-ups and venture capitals that would come here. We have a mandate to at least bring up two unicorns before the end of 2025. In terms of the technology space, many would not consider Kwara State as a hub. Interestingly enough, Kwara State has a big tech community. The CEO and founder of Kuda for example, is from Kwara State. There are a lot of tech businesses started by Kwarans. So, in terms of a tech hub, Kwara is it, and we want Kwara to be the next Silicon Valley. If you think tech, we want you to think Kwara, not Lagos or Abuja. That is the vision for Ilorin Innovation Hub.
The Ilorin Innovation Hub is the parent, we are also doing ICT Centres and ICT Hubs around different locations in Kwara, both in the south and northern area. So, it is not just in Ilorin, we want to generate talent across Kwara State.
Tell us about the Sugar Factory Film Studios.
The Sugar Film Factory is actually under the Ministry of Business Innovation and Technology. It is the brainchild of the ministry. People forget that entertainment and culture have a business element to it, and we come in the business element. That’s why we funded the creation of the Sugar Film Factory. It was actually a factory before, the Sugar Tate Factory. It was very morbid. If you look at the pictures from before, it was very run down. We took over and we refurbished everything to the structure you can see now. We have five studios, all equipped. You can do news, podcasts, or movie production and the rest. They also have a training institute where they train talents, youths, as well as actors, producers, writers, a number of all the various subsections in the entertainment industry. So we are linked to the Sugar Film Factory because we are looking at the business of culture in the business of entertainment, and the talent. And it is also to generate IGR of course. Nollywood movies are coming up, and they represent a number of revenue that comes to Nigeria. We see that value and want to key into it.
How do these Innovation hubs help adolescents who are in search of a safe space to learn?
One of the reasons we decided to put an ICT centre in strategic places in Kwara State, which construction would start next month is that we looked at the surrounding area, and discovered that there is no ICT Centre for them to even do CBT test.
We wanted facilities like computers and internet because we have a lot of programmes coming from the Federal Government, like the 3MTT Plus program, which empowers the local government initiative and even for us, His Excellency has empowered the SA on Innovation in Kwara State to do different programmes in terms of teaching students, a lot of them from age three upwards, which are excelling in their coding school. We have age 15 who are budding tech talents. Even now, they are going to do a camp crash course during the summer break across the different local governments. In every local government, there will be critical schools in which this would be taught. But some of the schools don’t have the necessary facilities to facilitate these trainings, so those are what we are looking at. These are young children, and we cannot always bring all of them to Ilorin to learn.
So, how have you been able to chart your own course as a commissioner, and to also make sure that you leave your own legacy of impact on the industry?
So, Kwara State is very, very unique in the sense that it’s not about one person’s legacy. It’s about the vision of our leader, His Excellency, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq. Every commissioner that works in or has taken up my role, and any essays that I’ve taken up in terms of innovation, technology, and every ministry, it’s very important for us to work hand in hand. We all have a very common vision. The vision of His Excellency is in the youth and women empowerment. As you can see, actually, I think we have more women commissioners than men in Kwara State. And he’s also very big on business and making sure that the economy grows. He’s also very big on the environment. You can see how clean Kwara State is. And in terms of roads, we have done countless amounts of roads. I think if there’s a record, His Excellency will actually get the record for the governor that has actually done the most roads in their tenure. Because he wants there to be accessibility in the state. If there’s no accessibility, there’s no trade. So, in terms of legacy, I can say that one of the key projects that I’ve been very lucky to head is the Ilorin Innovation Hub. As in the name, it’s innovation and technology. It’s more of a large ICC center. It’s the biggest in West Africa because of the size. We also have a partnership with IHS Towers. And there’s already about a fund of almost one billion Naira put for the running and for the programs. About one billion to two billion that is already put in place for all the programs, training, as well as startups and VCs that will come here. We have a mandate to at least bring up two unicorns before the end of 2025.
READ ALSO: Traders in Kwara State demand enhanced benefits for tax compliance
