Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, former Minister of Science and Technology, said on Tuesday 29 May 2019, that Nigeria could effectively improve governance, boost commerce, fight crime and better manage intelligence through the adoption of GridCodes, a Technology for digital addressing which was designed and founded by a Nigerian.
Onu stated this in Abuja as he inaugurated the Inter-Ministerial Technical Committee on the adoption of Gridcodes.
GridCodes is a technology for digital addressing invented and globally patented by Squadron Leader Adefola Amoo (rtd). The inter-ministerial committee was setup in furtherance of a directive given by the Chairman of the Nigerian Digital Addressing Council Vice President Prof Yemi Osibanjo, to review GridCodes Technology for national adoption by the Federal Government.
He said that the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari’s policy to encourage and adopt indigenously built technology as contained in Executive Order No 5 had produced many opportunities for indigenous innovation.
He further said that achievement of Digital Addressing through adoption of GridCodes would help Nigeria have a well civilised and orderly society, where the rule of law is better administered.
This in the long run would greatly facilitate a long-lasting panacea for peace and unity in the country. He also said adopting GridCodes for Nigeria would encourage further indigenous exploration of innovation, natural resources and raw materials to attain greatness and also occupy her rightful place among the comity of nations.
Digital addressing technology leverages Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to provide citizens an address that makes it extremely easy to navigate to homes, offices, social gatherings, places of entertainment and trade even if such places have no physical addresses. Such a system is accurate, reliable and error free.
The GridCodes digital addressing technology is delivered to the end user via a mobile app and an associated Website. The mobile app has been in use and available on the Google Play Store and iOS Stores since 2017. The associated website is www.findgridcode.com
When adopted GridCodes will facilitate revolutionary expansion of many verticals in commerce, regulation and governance. It will support last mile delivery, logistics, transportation as well as all businesses that revolve around being able to navigate reliably to where people are. In Governance for example, the challenges around achieving full compliance with the CBN’s KYC policy will be drastically reduced.
This is about the first time in Nigeria’s history that the work of an indigenous inventor is being considered for national adoption. Without a doubt, this is an opportunity to showcase how President Muhammadu Buhari’s Executive Order No 5 can decisively solve a critical geo-infrastructural problem that has been facing the country for years.
GridCodes will solve this problem as quickly as the adoption is declared by the Federal Government and at a fraction of the cost and time it took advanced economies to do the same thing. This is the kind of near instantaneous, leap-frog solutions that promoting indigenous innovation can achieve.
