Nigerian Army Partners IT Agency To Adopt Robots, Drones, Digital Grenades In Fight Against Insurgency
The Nigerian Army and the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) are planning to employ a new style of intelligence gathering to combat the country’s insurgency threat.
Through the National Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (NCAIR), the NITDA will collaborate with the military to develop locally manufactured military weapons to combat banditry and other forms of insecurity.
According to the Daily Trust, the program aims to deliver first-hand intelligence to the nation’s security architecture through technology and digital-driven ways in order to put a stop to the country’s ongoing security challenges.
The NCAIR Director, Ya’u Garba Isa, revealed this when he received Brigadier General Yahaya H Abdulhamid, Rector, Nigerian Army College of Environmental Science and Technology (NACEST) Markudi, Benue State, at his office in Abuja on Thursday.
Isa, in a statement issued by NITDA, said: “Collaboration with the military will open a huge opportunity for the Center to explore manufacturing of locally made military hardware that will be used in fighting criminal elements.”
NCAIR, he continued, is focused on Artificial Intelligence (AI), Robotics and Drones, Internet of Things (IoT), and other developing technologies that can be deployed to a mission area to deliver intelligence reports as a digital innovation and research facility.
He also mentioned that the center is looking at the idea of developing a “Digital Grenade” that may be used in conjunction with a “Wireless Censored Network” to detect important information in the field during operations.
“NCAIR focuses on creating a thriving ecosystem for Innovation-Driven Entrepreneurship (IDE), job creation and national development,” he said.
Garba then assured the management of the Nigerian Army College of Environmental Science and Technology of his office’s unwavering support for the mutual collaboration that will create a conducive environment for discovery and harnessing Nigeria’s teeming youth’s abundant creative ideas through the promotion of innovative technologies.
Brigadier General Yahaya H Abdulhamid, the College’s Rector, has previously stated that the decision to collaborate with the NITDA stemmed from the agency’s significant impact in the field of new technologies.
