Mobile Telecommunications Limited (MTC) on Thursday inaugurated its innovation centre at the Namibia University of Science and Technology’s High-Tech Transfer Plaza Select (HTTPS).
MTC has said the centre will facilitate a functional technological inspired ecosystem for the university community, industries, development partners and entrepreneurs.
Speaking at the event, MTC Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director Licky Erastus said the centre is an innovation hub where industry experts and academics will be able to leverage synergies in order to bring innovative ideas and concepts to life.
“To ignore innovation will be to commit economic suicide. The present world is a constant evolution, especially pertaining to how we live and do things. This dictates new methods in conceiving solutions to emerging societal demands and expectations,” he noted.
Erastus stressed that as the government enables ICT policies, they can only be meaningfully leveraged if industry players adopt a culture of smart collaboration, noting that innovation exercises are costly and risky as not all ideas become commercially viable solutions.
“In our complementary effort to the State, partnerships with like-minded institutions are important in absorbing the risks but also in reaping the rewards,” he said.
At the same event, Minister of Information and Communication Technology Peya Mushelenga said the government, through robust public policy, will continue to play an important role in fostering innovation by establishing conducive environments.
Mushelenga said as Namibia is geared towards the fourth industrial revolution, young people should be at the helm, supported by an array of interventions to grow the economy as well as to grow minds and cultivate ideas.
“As we recover from a catastrophic global pandemic, we need to give expression to how the role of technology is advancing the growth of our young people and how we as a government can contribute to it,” he said.
The innovation centre will be open to the NUST students and industry experts and will serve as a hub were industry meets academia, while there is also a mobile home which will provide MTC services.
Source: The Namibian Press Agency
