President of the Nigerian Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (NIEEE), Dr Felix Adegboye, has urged the Federal Government to create an enabling environment for investors towards putting into place resilient and intelligent digital solutions for the nation’s economic growth.

He advised during his investiture as the 22nd President and Chairman-in-Council of the NIEEE, and the induction of new fellows over the weekend in Lagos.

Adegboye, who highlighted that investors often come to a country to make a profit, said that when such feasibility is lacking in terms of good policies that support operations, investors would stay away and growth becomes elusive.

He, however, stressed the need to improve Nigeria’s power infrastructure through improved investment, adding that stable energy drives every system, including Artificial Intelligence (AI) growth, as well as the financial and manufacturing sectors.

Adegboye revealed plans to expand the Institute nationwide, deepen engagements with the federal and state Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to contribute to policies and enhance collaboration, as well as deepen international partnerships for growth.

Besides, he disclosed that the Institute had planned to offer its expertise to the government to enhance growth, policy formation and importantly, the enforcement, which remains a challenge.

Adegboye, while speaking on the current technical capacity of Nigeria to support real-time electronic transmission of election results nationwide, said that the issue of Internet penetration nationwide is crucial, while other issues equally important to consider are power supply, both to the service providers and the users, security and the network infrastructure.

He also noted that real-time transmission of election results is possible because election results are collated at different stages.

National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Prof. Nentawe Yilwatda, highlighted the critical role engineers play in driving national development, and assured the professionals of the Federal Government’s commitment to partnering with them to build a better Nigeria.

Yilwatda, who was conferred with a fellow of NIEEE, charged the new President to inspire and motivate members to strive for excellence, and also urged him to prioritise collaboration, inclusivity, and innovation in your tenure.

The Guest Lecturer/Chief Executive Officer at XHS Nigeria Limited, Dr Olufemi Okunade, expressed worries that Nigeria still has a lot of work to do on the resilience of its digital solutions, as Internet penetration at the start of 2024 hovered between 45 and 46 per cent and about 103 million users.

He said that over half of Nigeria’s population is not yet online, emphasising the urgency to fix the infrastructure deficit, skills and talent insufficiency, cybersecurity and trust deficit, fragmentation and lack of interoperability to further drive growth in the financial inclusion and Fintech, agriculture and food systems, power and smart infrastructure as well as government services and public sector efficiency.

He challenged the Institute under the new leadership to take bolder and more intentional steps to position engineers at the centre of Nigeria’s digital transformation.

Okunade further urged a stronger commitment to building digital solutions that do not die with the first power cut, platforms that don’t collapse under their own success and systems that are not just smart but wise, using data and AI in ways that honour Nigerians and advance prosperity.

Chairman of the occasion/Managing Director, IRecharge Tech-Innovations, Tomi Araromi, called for partnerships between engineers and financiers, innovators and regulators, as well as the creation of platforms where the coders and the sector designers can collaborate to solve national problems.

He also challenged engineers to drive the culture of local manufacturing, warning that a nation that cannot do or fix its own hardware cannot truly control its own destiny.

Earlier, the immediate-past President, Felix Olu, said the Institute had improved on the awareness about engineering professionalism over the years and had opened new visibility and enhanced its networks.

He urged the new administration to further take the Institute to a higher pedestal.