Digital economy proven to be platform for job creation ― Pantami

The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Pantami, has said that the digital economy have proven to be a veritable platform for job creation.

He said in 2017 alone, the the digital economy contributed 5.1 million jobs to the economy of the United States.

The Minister said this during the weekend at the Digital Nigeria Day (and United Nation’s World Development Information Day) Celebration.

“The Digital Economy has also proven to be a veritable platform for the creation of jobs. For example, in 2017 alone, the digital economy contributed 5.1 million jobs to the economy of the United States.

“An official report in China also noted that digital economy created 191 million jobs in the country in 2018 and this was about 25 per cent of the total employment generated that year.

“Furthermore, the recent changes in work patterns as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic have also shown that the development of digital economies are no longer a luxury, rather they have become a necessity,” he noted.

He said the global digital economy makes up a significant proportion of the global economy.

“A report by Oxford Economics valued the digital economy at $11.5 trillion as at 2016, or approximately 16 per cent of the value of the global economy with the digital economy growing 2.5 times faster than global GDP over the past 15 years.

“According to McKinsey, the digital economy in Africa is expected to grow to over $300 billion by 2025. The World Economic Forum also predicts that over 60 per cent of global GDP will be digitised by 2022 and that within the next decade, digital platforms will be used to create close to 70 per cent of new value.

“We are also witnesses to how the COVID-19 pandemic has greatly increased the adoption of digital technologies. All these show the great value of the digital economy and serve as an incentive for countries to prioritise its development.

While narrating the journey of a digital Nigeria, the Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Dr Inuwa Abdullahi, said the journey started when President Muhammadu Buhari renamed and expanded the mandate of the Ministry to cover digital economy.

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“The journey started just a year ago on October 23, 2019, when President Muhammadu Buhari renamed and expanded the mandate of our ministry to cover digital economy. Did journey is full of new opportunities, exciting possibilities and significant challenges, but having the minister of communications and digital economy piloting and driving this journey, we were able to turn the challenges into delight, explore the possibilities and exploit the opportunities.

“That’s why within a year we were able to do a lot in terms of implementation of the national digital economy policy and strategy for digital Nigeria.

“The achievements so far is unprecedented. Just ICT is an enabler not the digital economy, but the sector within just these few months has grown to 17.83 per cent.

“The minister is driving implementation of new initiatives, that will help our young Nigerian our youth the digitally native to unlock or to benefit from this new frontier, we are calling digital economy to create value for themselves and for country in general,” NITDA DG stated.

NIGERIAN TRIBUNE