BY OLADIPO LAWSON
The world is currently making a conscious shift towards an alternate universe, The Metaverse, together with all the endless possibilities of Extended Reality, and Kaduna is not about to be left behind.
Kaduna is a sprawling metropolitan city that has always been at the forefront of Northern Nigeria’s development.
It’s a hotbed of development and technology, with a growing population of technologically savvy citizens. The government has already begun making plans to critically embed itself in the Metaverse, positioning the state to be a future city.
The state intends to make significant infrastructural changes to incorporate the Metaverse into its ever-expanding design and development plan, but it cannot do so on its own. The state government has partnered with a major technology firm, GreySoft Technologies, to lead this development.
GreySoft is a technology-firm based in Northern Nigeria with a focus on developing emerging talent and technologies in the Extended Reality (XR) space in Africa, whose headquarters is in Kaduna, Nigeria. They have also incorporated in the United States of America and have established partnerships with several American tech firms to develop various valuable solutions for Africa’s unique challenges.
Greysoft is currently transforming Kaduna city into a Metaverse-friendly space by leading advocacy for the emerging industry, creating various virtual reality solutions for the automobile, tourism, commerce, communication, gaming, and education sectors.
As the state government plans to hold its 7th Annual Investment Summit (KADINVEST 7.0) in October 2022, the need for virtual participation ensues. Only this time, it will not only be via Zoom, Google Meet, or Microsoft Teams, it will be wholly immersive in the Metaverse, where people can virtually walk in with their avatars, regardless of proximity, network, grab a seat and take a tour around exhibition booths.
This immersive and unforgettable experience will be powered by Greysoft technologies, or as they are fondly called, GreyHobb. It will truly be the first of its kind, for a government investment summit to be held in the metaverse, and since insecurity is still being addressed, what better time to adopt this technology than now.
Greysoft CEO, Isah Raphael is particularly excited about the task of leading the state into a rising sector with the potential of reaching a 5-trillion dollar mark by 2030, as recently reported by global consulting firm, McKinsey & Co. Raphael is also a guest speaker at the KADINVEST 7.0 summit on the topic, “Investment and Business Opportunities in the Metaverse”.
In his words: “We cannot continue to lament over the inability of the government to create jobs locally when technology provides a unique opportunity that traverses proximity.” As the government focuses on creating an enabling environment and policies on ease of doing business, we must reach out beyond the shores of our nations and import the abundantly available jobs overseas for our people to enjoy remote work and its resulting remuneration in foreign currencies”.
This project falls in line with the development and investment projects promised by His Excellency Governor Nasir El-Rufai. This will fulfill the objectives of turning Kaduna into a trend-setting leader at the forefront of all technological movements and advancements across the globe.
Greysoft Technologies has already designed the platform for which individuals would begin to register and create their avatars for the metaverse so that they can attend the summit. Accessing the summit through the metaverse will afford everyone, globally, to join the conversation and engage personally and immersive in the KADINVEST 7.0 Summit.
Industries are already being transformed as Greysoft Technologies takes the lead in this space. Learning in the metaverse is at a whole new level, as students interact immersive with virtual representations of compound molecules, for instance, human anatomy, and all the various provisions of virtual reality.
The Metaverse is the future, and Kaduna state is currently at the helm. With these initiatives, the future that can be built and created together is left to be seen. Clearly, nothing shall be impossible to a mind that believes!
Lawson wrote in from Kaduna
