Minister meets Space X, World Bank, Google to strengthen Nigeria’s Digital Economy

The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Mr Isa Ali Pantami, has had meetings at Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (Space X) headquarters in Hawthorne, California, United States as well as a meeting at the World Bank Headquarters and another meeting with Google Corporation in a bid to strengthen partnerships for the development of Nigeria’s digital economy.

The meetings with the World Bank and Google were held on the sidelines of the US-Africa Leaders’ Forum (USALF), which took place in Washington DC, United States of America, while the visit to Space X was a follow-up to the events at the USALF.

Pantami was received at Space X by Samuel (Chad) Gibbs IV, the Vice President of Business Operations, on behalf of Elon Musk, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Space X.

During the visit, both parties discussed how Space X can expand its presence in Nigeria following its entry into the Nigerian market through the Starlink broadband service.

The Minister also asked the Space X team to consider sourcing some of its engineers from Nigeria’s digital talent pool.

Pantami and his team were given a personalised tour of the SpaceX Rocket Manufacturing Facility, Starlink Assembly Line, and Product Development Facility.

He also witnessed the live Space X rocket launch of two telecom satellites into orbit.

On the invitation of the World Bank Group, the Minister had a meeting with top officials of the Bank, including Mr Vyjayanti Desai, the Practice Manager for the World Bank’s Identification for Development (ID4D) and Digitising Government to Person Payments (G2Px) Programmes.

Also at the meeting were Franz Drees-Gross, Director of Infrastructure, World Bank West African Region and Michel Rogy, World Bank’s Digital Development Practice Manager for Africa and the Middle East.

The World Bank team commended the Minister for his leadership, which they said has led to significant development in Nigeria’s digital economy sector.

The meeting also discussed how the Bank could further partner with Nigeria to strengthen the digital economy ecosystem in areas such as infrastructure, skilling, cybersecurity, and digital identity.

Pantami also had a meeting with Karan Bhatia, Vice President, Government Affairs and Public Policy at Google. Mr Bhatia was full of praise for Pantami for the significant progress that has been made in the digital transformation of the Nigerian economy.

He also commended the Minister for Nigeria’s Startup Act, noting the potential of the legislation to serve as a catalyst for rapid development of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Nigeria and other parts of Africa.

The Google Vice President discussed the company’s growing focus on Africa and looks forward to expanding partnerships with Nigeria in areas such as skilling, cybersecurity, and cloud computing, among others.