On Thursday, the Nigerian Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami appealed to Slovenia to have partnerships with African countries. The Ministerś remarks were made at the 11th African day International Conference in Abuja organized by the Republic of Slovenia.
Mr Pantami commended the giant strides made by Slovenia in the field of blockchain technology adding that the conference was well poised to facilitate partnerships between Slovenia and African countries that would be a win-win situation.
A recent study found Slovenia’s capital, Ljubljana to be the most crypto-friendly city in Europe as the Government allows crypto payments in 72 shops and 33 sports venues. Ljubljana has more than 137 companies and 584 different locations that accept crypto assets and Slovenia’s biggest shopping centre is even named BTC in honour of Bitcoin.
In a virtual keynote, the Nigeria Communications Minister focused on the importance of collaborations for citizens-centred technology in a paper titled, “Emerging Technologies and Collaborations on Citizens-Centred Technology Governance.”
According to Mr Pantami, citizen-centred blockchain technology involves new ways of enabling citizens to prosper as “it aims at providing an environment where all citizens irrespective of class, caste and gender can develop to their full potential.”
Mr Pantami highlighted the issuance of the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation and the subsequent establishment of a full-fledged bureau as some of the strategies adopted by the Federal Government to enhance citizens-centred technology.
Among others, Mr Pantami also mentioned strides taken with the approval of the Presidential Council for Digital Economy and eGovernment, the Nigeria Startup Bill (NSB) and the accessibility of government services online.
The Minister also stated that efforts were being made to broaden the scope of service rendition and delivery as the country’s recently launched digital eNaira continues to go through upgrades to add more features and improve transaction speeds.
The African Day Conference is held annually and the theme for this year is: “Africa and Europe: Cooperation on Digital Transition and New Technologies” and was addressed by the Slovenian president and Foreign Minister.
President Borut Pahor’s address emphasized that digitisation should be based on human rights, the rule of law and democratic society while Minister Anže Logar called for the development of cybersecurity.