Meet Olumide Balogun, Google’s new Director for West Africa

Google has introduced its recently appointed Director for West Africa, Mr. Olumide Balogun, to the Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa CCIE. The introduction follows an assurance from Google that the strength of the existing partnership between the two organizations will be maintained.

The familiarization visit to NITDA has become essential, according to Mr. Balogun, who joined other Google executives at the Agency’s Corporate Headquarters in Abuja. He reiterated Google West Africa’s commitment to strengthen the partnership between both organisations.

What we know about Olumide Balogun

According to Brand Communicator, Olumide Balogun’s success in managing Google as Head of Consumer Apps for Sub-Saharan Africa for more than four years has helped him advance to the directorial post. He was instrumental in promoting the uptake, expansion, and retention of Google’s consumer services across the African continent during this time.

He was the Head of Marketing at HMD Global-West Africa, a multinational Finnish mobile phone maker well-known for the iconic Nokia phone brand, before joining Google. He held the position for about three years.

His career path also includes serving as Microsoft Corporation’s Head of Marketing for West Africa, another well-known American multinational technology company. In this role, he oversaw the marketing strategies and teams in the focus nations of West Africa, coordinating the accomplishment of both immediate and long-term corporate goals.

He started on his professional path in 2006 at IL-Systems Limited, where he was a Software Development Engineer. Subsequently, he joined Nokia as a Product Marketing Specialist two years later. His exceptional performance led to his progression to the role of Senior Manager, Product Marketing for West and Central Africa. After a productive tenure of over five years at Nokia, Olumide pursued new horizons by joining Microsoft.

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Nigeria positioning itself to bridge the gap in digital transformation

In Abuja, Mr. Balogun shared that Google has been actively engaged in initiatives related to internet development in Africa for more than eight years. In 2015, during a major developer event, Google announced a transition from being primarily focused on mobile technologies to becoming an AI-first company. As part of this transition, the discussions about GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) conversations were of particular interest to Google.

Balogun shared that Google is presently preparing a report outlining the influence of Artificial Intelligence in Africa, which is scheduled to be unveiled at the University of Johannesburg in South Africa next September.

Olumide said the Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency, Kashifu Inuwa, believes that a partnership between Google and NITDA can enhance possibilities for the creation of a million digital jobs in the country.

According to Inuwa, NITDA is positioning Nigeria for accelerated job creation through the digital economy. He added that the Nigerian Startup Act identifies some initiatives such as talent development which can enable job creation. Through this, Nigeria can position itself to bridge the digital gap among its youthful population.

Moving forward, he acknowleged the roles of government in the ecosystem. Roles like intervening through policies, regulations, and infrastructure as necessary. Also, he described the underlying aims of regulations by the government to include fostering market creation, making services more accessible to all, safeguarding consumers, improving service quality, and promoting innovation in any setting.

NITDA is changing people’s mindset about the perspective on the government’s approach to regulation and policy, adding that the Agency is co-creating with the ecosystem in anything it does. He added that Nigeria has the potential to play a significant role in narrowing the digital transformation gap due to its youthful population.

He mentioned that in 2018, enterprises that embraced digital transformation contributed 18.5% to the global GDP, and this percentage is predicted to rise to 53.3% this year, accounting for more than half of the global GDP. Additionally, he pointed out that generative AI is expected to contribute approximately 7 trillion US dollars to the economy in the coming years.

Recognizing the successful collaboration between NITDA and Google Developers Group, Inuwa acknowledged that it has led to the training of 150,000 Nigerian youths. He discussed an ongoing initiative at the National Center for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (NCAIR) in Abuja.

He also expressed his intention to extend the program to other states in cooperation with the GDG, stating plans to establish technology development zones in collaboration with universities to foster smart manufacturing.

In his words, “Similarly, we are also looking at how to establish the seed investment fund to all the startups to attract investment. Last year, over 626 billion was invested but only 3.5% came to Africa and if you look at our population, we can do more than that; these are some of the ideas we need stakeholders like you to work with us.”

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