The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Mr Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, recently in Gombe State, said Nigeria’s march towards attaining 95 per cent digital literacy in 2030, as contained in the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS), 2020-2030, now looks more promising than ever.
Pantami, who presided over the graduation of participants at a two-week Digital Job Creation Training for the North-East in Gombe, which was facilitated by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), said, “The reason we train citizens is because digital skills are no longer considered a luxury, but necessities required in any business you do. If you want to be successful, you need to have digital skills.”
According to the Minister, “ICT is not just an independent sector but the key enabler of all other sectors today. It enables opportunities in education, in health, in agriculture, in security, in defence, in manufacturing, in trade, in investment and in industry,” he added.
He, therefore, urged the participants to adopt innovation-driven enterprises and to utilise the training they have received to improve their economic status and make Nigeria a better place.
“We have to utilise ICT in order to make our country a better place. We must use ICT even for our personal economic benefits amongst others. Therefore, we want to encourage you not to waste your time online but rather to use the knowledge you have acquired to make Nigeria a better place and at the same time, derive many economic benefits from it,” he added.
The Minister highlighted that recent reports of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) about the performance of each sector of the economy, which indicated an unprecedented ICT’s contribution of 18.44 per cent to the economy, as very heart-warming about the prospects of the industry meeting with the expectations of the relevant policies.
“So, by implication, we set a record last year and we surpassed that record this second quarter of 2022 without involving the digital services. Only the ICT sector contributed 18.44 per cent, which can be attributed to the policies which we have introduced in the sector,” he said.
He said the training, which has taken place in nine other states including the Federal Capital Territory, would be conducted throughout the remaining geopolitical zones.
The Digital Job Creation Training is a two-week programme targeted at youth desirous of developing and enhancing their ICT skills in order to promote and enhance growth in the yet untapped and commercially viable digital economy both locally and globally.
Each participant at the training received starter packs comprising a laptop with accessories, MiFi Modem with three months data subscription, and some money.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, was very excited to hear of the remarkable contribution of the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the second quarter of 2022 (Q2 2022).
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) stated this in the ‘Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product Report’ for Q2 2022, released recently.
The Digital Economy sector under Mr Pantami has continued its trend of playing a key part in the growth of Nigeria’s economy.
The Report by the NBS indicated that the ICT sector contributed 18.44 per cent to the total real GDP in Q2 2022. This is the highest contribution of ICT to the GDP and is truly unprecedented and marks the third time that the sector has achieved an unprecedented contribution to Nigeria’s GDP during the tenure of the Minister – in Q1 2020, Q2 2021 and now Q2 2022.
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