A good leader knows both the way and the destination. Such a leader works deliberately to take the people through that way to the destination. This is the emerging reality in Katsina state where the Governor, Malam Dikko Umar Radda, is working the anvil to take the state to a better place. That place is a future full of opportunities and prosperity. A future steeped in innovation, investments and wealth creation.
Armed with double Master’s degrees and a PhD in Agriculture and Rural Sociology, Radda had never hidden the fact that he is a futuristic leader. During electioneering, he promised to turn Katsina into a respected and recognized knowledge ecosystem. Brick by brick, Governor Radda is building that future. Last week, the governor was in Lagos with his team made up of young, ambitious tech-savvy men and women. It’s a team too hard to beat. A team of digitally skilled up, globally competitive and tech-minded whizzes. Listening to the governor and his team, you get the impression that Katsina is quietly cresting the digital economy curve far ahead of the national average.
Governor Radda is ambitious and much in a hurry to drive his state into the global ICT matrix. And he has found one of Africa’s most advanced and globally-certified digital empires to partner with. TD Africa is also an ambitious digitally ahead entity. This makes the emerging partnership between it and Katsina state a union of shared values and interests. It was smart of the governor to seek out TD Africa. It will mean opening Katsina to the limitless and vast opportunities offered by global tech giants including Microsoft, Elon Musk’s Starlink, Cisco, among others. Indeed, the very best of hardware and software developers will sooner than later move their skills and light-years-ahead technologies into Katsina state.
The governor has been deliberate in this journey to turn Katsina into a thriving innovation hub. He realizes that to achieve this dream, there must be adequate supply of young, highly motivated innovators. It was no surprise that very early in the life of his administration he created an ICT Directorate through an Executive Order. This is solely to chart the path for the digital transformation of Katsina into a smart state integrated by the web of technology for ease of governance, advancement of learning, healthcare, agriculture, and drive the MSMEs for which Katsina is legendary.
But beyond this, Governor Radda’s infusion of technology into the workplace and schools indexes the fact that he wants to change the narrative of Katsina being one of the digitally compliant states to the most digitally advanced state. This is neither sloganeering nor brinkmanship. It’s already becoming a reality. The governor is grooming a generation of Katsina youths who will not only add value to the growing army of tech-savvy youths in the state but will form a critical part of the digital knowledge equity of Nigeria.
The Governor has designed a strategy to turn Katsina into an innovation hub and create a Silicon Valley out of the state. Last December, the Radda-led State Executive Council resolved to convert the Katsina State Institute of Technology and Management into a dedicated Information Communications Technology University. The university, much like the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) will be the hub of capacity-building in tech-related fields for the youths.
When Jawaharlal Nehru, India Prime Minister (1947-1964), one of India’s visionary leaders and advocates of a stronger India founded the IIT, many were ignorant of his vision and its essence. Today, IIT has distinguished India as the software and outsourcing capital of the world. India is a big exporter of digital knowledge using the IIT as the production line of several generations of Indians who are not only fiercely competitive but are also globally preferred to get things done in the tech and finance agora.
How do you explain that men and women of Indian origin have and still function as CEOs in global tech and fintech giants namely: Sanjay Mehrotra of Micron Technology; Shantanu Narayen (CEO of Adobe); Satya Nadella (Microsoft); Sunder Pichai  (Alphabet and Google); Jay Chaudhry (Zscaler, a cloud security company); Arvind Krishna (IBM); Neal Mohan (YouTube); George Kurian (NetApp), among other tech heavyweights.
This is not an accident of history. It is happening because Nehru saw a digital future and strategically set India on a path to that future. Recent data say that one-third of software engineers in Silicon Valley are Indians. They are perceived as smart, digitally skilled up, brilliant and talented. India is by current value and number the IT outsourcing capital of the world. Simply put, companies in Europe and United States confidently outsource critical jobs to Indians in India and they deliver solution effectively. One of the biggest exports of India is her human capital, forged in IIT and other highly resourced institutions of learning across the country.
This is what Governor Radda wants to achieve in his vision of a new Katsina driven by zesty, smart and digitally-proven young professionals. The Katsina-TD Africa partnership is a union of two forward-focused entities both with a huge sprinkling of youthful nerds and geeks. With a Directorate for ICT and a fully functional ICT university, the world awaits a sprouting of a Silicon Valley in Katsina in the coming years. Just as the effect of Nehru’s IIT was not felt in the immediate years in India, so the Radda innovation vision may not bear immediate fruits, but watch out for Katsina in the coming years. It might turn out a net exporter of digital talents and curate its name in the ICT outsourcing map of the world. Without a doubt, a new Katsina is rising. It’s a Katsina where tech drives the enterprise, powers agriculture, learning, healthcare and every aspect of human endeavour. It is a future when ICT start-ups will dot every space in the state and when some smart indigenes of the state will become even smarter such that they will effectively connect the dots in the state’s public and private sectors; a future when global tech brands will confidently outsource critical jobs to start-ups in the state.
Radda says he has a vision to transform his state into a destination of first choice by tech investors as well as investors in other fields not just on account of tax and other incentives, but on account of the existence of a ready pool of highly motivated and skilled talents that would help the investors, both local and foreign, achieve their goals.
Ambition drives leadership. Dr. Radda is ambitious. His roadmap is clear. Like a driver who knows both the way and the destination, Radda has a set out on a transformative journey. He’s powered by his passion. His zeal is writ large. It’s only a matter of time, Katsina will not only have a surfeit of home-grown but globally-competitive digital natives, it will also be an exporter of digital nerds and mavens.

Author: KEN UGBECHIE