Nigeria targets digital entrepreneurs, GDP boost through MIT-REAP

The Federal Government has inaugurated an advisory committee to drive the Reaching Out Entrepreneurship Acceleration Program (REAP) which is promoted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, De Isa Pantami while inaugurating the committee, said the aim of the REAP was to produce digital entrepreneurs who would create jobs.

He said Nigeria joined many other countries to adopt REAP because it understands the importance of producing employers that employees.

“Today, our economy cannot develop by relying on natural resources only, we need to come up with so many policies, strategies and programs that will support our knowledge-based economy, most importantly, digital economy.

“It is because of this we travelled to the US, we had a discussion with MIT about the process of going REAP, and as you all know, REAP has been very successful globally.

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“We were advised on how to start the process, we started the process the same year 2018 and many teams participated in the process, in the end, around 6 or 7 teams were selected and Abuja team emerged among the selected teams.

“In this, there are 7 cohorts,  we have been joined by a team from Denmark, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, these are the countries that joined this 7 cohorts and we have colleagues from other nations like Canada, Peru, Spain, United Arab Emirate”, Dr Pantami said.

He said in the policy drive of REAP, all stakeholders would be represented, while the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) is the Chief Host, the Director General of the National Information Technology Agency (NITDA) and the Executive Secretary of Petroleum Equalisation Fund are the Co-champions.

“In addition, in the process, we have been advised to ensure that all stakeholders are represented from public institutions, private sectors, academia, policymakers and many more, it is a process that you must have an effective dynamic team so that you will be able to deliver it successfully.

“This team, our Chief host is going to be the FCT Minister, and Co-champions of the team that will look after the steering committee, accidentally, I happen to be the champion of the team with all sense of humility and the co-champions are the Executive Secretary of Petroleum Equalisation Fund and DG of National Information Development Agency (NITDA) they will serve as co-champions and support the process.

“And part of the requirement is that there must be MIT-REAP Advisory Board and this advisory board is supposed to bring people together with experience in public service in academia, in industry, in entrepreneurship.

“This advisory body is going to advise the steering committee on how to execute this project and they would be meeting from time to time to come up with what I can say policy so that the steering committee will implement the policy and strategy they receive from the advisory body.

“So, people sitting here with me will serve on the MIT-REAP advisory body, and the advisory body will play a significant role in supporting the steering committee to execute the program on our behalf”, he noted.

Speaking on the importance of REAP, Dr Pantami said “as we know in Nigeria, we have a huge challenge at hand, that is the challenge of unemployment, students are graduating every day, many are being admitted into our universities but job vacancies are very limited, some graduated 15 years ago, and still they are in the labour market, some 10 years ago, and they are still on the labour market.

“MIT came up with this program in order to support in producing potential employers, rather than producing potential employees.

This is an effort to produce serial entrepreneurs, and if you produce entrepreneurs, by implication, they are employers and they will employ others to support their own entrepreneurship, and that is why many countries have earlier joined the process and they have been very successful like Morocco did before, South Africa joined before and now we have the privilege of having Abuja team, after Lagos team was successful and this is another area that is commendable, you can hardly find a country that benefited twice from MIT-REAP beside Nigeria.

“As the name implies, this team will focus more in Abuja, trying to build the ecosystem here in Abuja, but the impact of that should not be restricted only to Abuja it is supposed to be in each and every state of the Federation, so this is just like maybe our area where we concentrate but in the process, we want to ensure that whatever we achieve now is going to be extended to other parts of the country because our mandate is not restricted to only one city or town and that is why we have FCT Minister as our chief host.

“As you all know the approach of MIT-REAP is more on producing entrepreneurs and this is what Nigeria needs if you look at the total number of our graduates and the limited employment opportunities we have, you will discover that the best strategy is to focus on producing entrepreneurs and this is the only way out.

“Only last week, I read that 1.9 million students are going to sit for JAMB examination when they graduate, let’s assume 1 million get admitted into the university, let’s assume that 800,000 graduate on time, where are you going to accommodate graduates of only one year.

“I had a discussion with Head of Service, I asked what is the total number of civil servants in Nigeria, she said it is around 77,000, including those who spent 34 years in service, the total number is around 77,000, now by implication, if you admit this number, you are going to have 800,000 to 1 million graduates, where are you going to accommodate them?

“So, we need to change our perception of focusing more only on serving government, rather come up with ideas that will allow us to come up with digital innovation and entrepreneurship that will support our country and make it very successful.

Explaining that MIT as an Institution has a GDP of over $2 trillion because of the entrepreneurs it produces, the Minister said Nigeria as a country has not exceeded $450 billion as GDP.

He, however, expressed hope that if the REAP is implemented across the country, Nigeria would experience GDP boost from the digital economy.

“The GDP of MIT as an institution is higher than that of India as a country, today they have over $2 trillion as their GDP, in Nigeria, the highest we ever reached is $420 billion but this is just an institution (University) with over $2 trillion as GDP, because of the entrepreneurs they have been producing.

“So, if you bring together all the entrepreneurs of MIT, their GDP collectively is over $2 trillion and it is higher than the GDP of India as a country with a population of around 1.2 billion which is even little higher than the population of Africa, but this is just a University what they have achieved through entrepreneurship.

“So, this is a clear indication that if we are committed and we are willing to utilise the program, I believe that it will go a long way in addressing the challenge of unemployment in Nigeria by producing many entrepreneurs that are going to be the beneficiaries of our policies, strategies and interventions where necessary”, Dr Pantami added.