Technological Innovation: Obiano Visits MIT, USA

JAMES EZE

Governor Willie Obiano, yesterday visited the Famous Cambridge Innovation Centre in Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT, in Boston, Massachusetts in search of ideas that would nurture technological talents in the state as demonstrated by the five Anambra school girls who won a Gold Medal at the World Technovation Challenge in the Silicon Valley in San Francisco, USA.

Cambridge Innovation Center, CIC is one of the leading technology incubation centers in the world where smart tech-heads with bright ideas are given an ideal environment to evolve innovative ideas and a strategic platform to pitch their ideas to venture capitalists who have the financial resources to fund new technological ideas.

Conducting Governor Obiano and his team around the facility, the Relationship Manager of the Centre, Mr Kristyn Fratus explained that the volume of funds that was available to the centre was many times the volume of venture capital available to all of the United Kingdom.

Governor Obiano’s mission in the Centre was to carry out a first-hand assessment of the place, discuss possibilities of partnership and adapting the model to jump-start his dream of turning Anambra State into a leading technological hub in the West African region; a move which he started by inaugurating the Anambra State Creative Economy Council shortly after he took the oath for his second term in office.

While on tour of the Center, the Governor interacted with young bright tech-heads at the Innovation Café and discussed the possibilities of their visiting Anambra State to interact with the youth and offer new hi-tech solutions to the developmental needs of the state.

One of the bright tech-heads the governor met with at the Center is Nigeria’s Ezinne Uzo-Okoro who had spent fourteen years at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and
twenty-two-year old Indo-Swiss, Divyanshu Varshney, Founder and President of Virtual Reality Company among many others.

The Governor was accompanied by his Chief of Staff, Mr. Primus Odili, his Principal Secretary, Sir Willie Nwokoye, member Representing Ayamelum in Anambra State House of Assembly, Mr Uche Okafor and Alex Onukwue, National President of ASATU