By Omoniyi Ibietan 

The 2023 edition, the 11th in the series, of what was hitherto, Social Media Week, Lagos (now AfricaNXT), has opened at its regular place of operation, the Landmark Event Centre, Victoria Island Lagos.


Thematised on the centrality of cooperation, collaboration and innovation in unlocking Africa's prosperity, the fiesta is taking place on the heels of a successful rollback of the most lethal human pandemic in a century, as well as in the vortex of global gruelling insecurity, a dangerous climate crisis, seemingly intractable inflation, widening social inequality, unemployment, and indeed, locally, a silent ravaging drug abuse epidemic, a ridiculously prostrate finance sector painfully bereft of cash to dispense to legitimate owners - substantially in the breach of fiduciary tradition, an avoidable perennial energy crisis, and a very charged political terrain that prologue series of elections in which most key actors essentially take democracy for granted riding on impunity and mindless chicanery. 


The foregoing atmospheric desert is the locus African patriots, the creative and social entrepreneur, academics, policy creators, enthusiasts of African renaissance and development, both on the continent and in the diaspora, meet to create an oasis of solution-focused conversations beginning in less than 8 hours, to renew a pathway, upward, onward and forward towards Nigeria’s and Africa's prosperity through connections, cooperation and innovation. 


From 8.00am tomorrow, Monday, 6th of February, until 10.00pm on Friday, 10th February, over 400 speakers will engage with active citizens and the concerned from many countries, in some 200 sessions to reflect on and create strategies for remaking Nigeria and birthing a prosperous Africa.


In 2022, AfricaNXT was attended in-person by 4,690 people and 25,000 others who subscribed variously from 19 countries, and received 494 speakers at 185 events. The social reach was 171 million. This explains AfricaNXT's claim as "the largest gathering of innovators across the African continent and the diaspora". 


Save for the period of my 'sabbatical' I have attended all editions since 2015 and moderated three sessions on behalf of my employer, The Nigerian Communications Commission, which drew the largest session gathering at the 2022 edition, where it featured a discourse on the benefits of Fifth Generation (5G) Networks. 


One of the most enthralling sessions in 2022 was hosted by Tonye Cole, Alero Ayida-Otobo, Jennifer Soba-Pearce, Emmanuel Dania, and  Tolulope Makinwa, where they discussed "Community-centred Development: A Case for Collaboration and Sustainable Solutions". There were exhibitions and a potpourri of new ways of doing things. Indeed, any idea under the sun, from sexuality to literature,  from music to cinematography,  from religion to politics, just name it, can feature in AfricaNXT. The AfricaNXT is not just a multipurpose conference, it is a festival of ideas that can remake Africa.


This year, the NCC's session will feature a 5-man panel in the discourse on THE NCC MANDATE TOWARDS THE REALISATION OF FULL DIGITAL ECONOM. Reuben Muoka, NCC Director of Public Affairs, wil moderate the session featuring Abraham Oshadami, Head of Spectrum Administration; Freda Bruce-Bunnett, Head Digital Skills and Services; Aderonke Adeniyi (Aderonke Sola-Ogunsola), Head Financing & Stakeholder Management Team of the newly-created NCC-domiciled Nigeria Office for Developing the Indigenous Telecom Sector (NODITS); and Elly Yisa (Elizabeth Yisa), Team Lead, Child Online Protection in the Internet Governance Unit of NCC.


The NCC session will take place from 1-2pm, FutureNow Stage, on Thursday, 9th February 2023.


Ibietan, PhD is Head, Media Relations at NCC, Abuja