Akah urges youths to leverage Technology as tool for national development

Success Damian:

Oremeyi Akah, Chief Core Operations Officer, Interswitch, Nigerian Technology giant, has urged youths to leverage Technology as a major tool for national development.

Akah was speaking at the 7^th Lagos State University College of Medicine Student Union Leadership Conference which was held on Saturday, November 16, 2019 at MRC Hall, Lasuth, Ikeja, Lagos.

The theme of the conference was ‘A Perfect Nation: The Huge Gap between Reality and Fantasy; The Youths Leading the Contributions to Nation’s Development’.

She said “Technology is Leverage that anybody can take advantage of; it is not an end in itself; I believe it is a means to an end. Technology today has become so ubiquitous, it is everywhere, and the youths are definitely technology savvy. Nigeria of course has the highest population of youths; we have the highest concentration, almost globally, and that is huge potential.” 

She warned youths against resigning to faith and leaving national development to the politicians “People have resigned in their mind and left the development of Nigeria to the politicians, or until they get into power,  I don’t  believe in that, I believe that mass matters, I believe that numbers count and the youths are a huge number, I believe if they understand and  tap into the potential of their number, tap into the potential of their mind, of their ability to assimilate knowledge and do positive things, I think we can make impact.

Akah who spoke to Journalists before the conference said “Specifically I will be speaking on the potential, the opportunity that the youths have; I will be tailoring my conversation towards how they can leverage technology to drive change that will close that gap between what we see in Nigeria today and the future Nigeria that all of us will delight to see.

“So for me, we are going to be discussing various technology assets, social media, the internet, interconnectivity, speed, the velocity of data and how it can be leveraged by the youth, not to sit down and complain or developed vices just like many are doing today, but to use it as an advantage to develop virtues that can actually impact Nigeria,” Akah said.

Akah stated further, “I know the students want to challenge themselves to rise.  The theme of the conference which is the gap between reality and fantasy is going to look at the country and the role the youth can and should play in national development.”

On her advice to the youths she said “Don’t believe what people say, believe in your country, make up your mind to make a change, change is not easy, it takes time, if you are patient and you push, it will come through, we have only one country, nobody gonna fix, it is for us to do,”Akah stated.