By Hillary Asemota
For being a stakeholder in the ICT/IT space and its trajectory since 2016, the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof. Ibrahim Pantami, in a swag assessment of his stewardship has commended Ministry staff and its Agencies, the ICT Commissioners for the 36 States, and Private Sector Players for taking the industry to an unprecedented height never witnessed before since the ministry came into existence, despite COVID-19 headwinds.
Making the disclosure at the just concluded 9th Regular Meeting of the National Council on Communications and Digital Economy (NCCDE) on Monday in Abuja, with the Theme: “Utilizing Digital Technology to Accelerate Economic Recovery in a COVID-19 Era and Beyond, the Minister, while beamed with excitement over his industry role as game changer for the Nigerian economy in the last 2 years, explaining:
“I want to commend the Permanent Secretary, Mr. Bitrus Bako Nabasu on this meeting, no doubt, this is the largest regular council meeting and I’m very proud of you all, I have the opportunity of being part of the celebration of the past six meetings from 2016 till date.
“I also want to commend the State Commissioners that are taking ICT and Digital Economy to greater heights, from 2016 till date I have being a stakeholder in the organization of this meeting. I’m very proud of our representatives taking the sector to greater height, I’m very proud of the various CEOs/DGs of the agencies and commissions.
Pantami, asserts that the choice of the theme: ‘Utilizing Digital Technology to Accelerating Economic Recovery in a COVID-19 Era and Beyond’ became poignant because of the dreaded pandemic which boxed the globe, including Nigeria economy to suffocating state, invariably appraising the magic wand of the Ministry, he added: “This is very relevant as ICT/Digital Economy became the driver for consolidating our economy, because as it is today, it is the fastest growing sector of our economy in 2020 and 2021.
While backing his fact and figures from data provided by NBS, he admitted and reiterated…in the last quarter of 2020 the fasting growing sector of Nigeria’s economy was the ICT sector, adding that the growth level of ICT in 2020 was more than four (4) times the second most performing sector of the economy.
The Minister, said: “Furthermore, the performance showed that the ICT sector grew up to 14.9% and if you add the combined growth rate of the other sectors they are not up to ICT.
“It is because of this that President Muhammadu Buhari in May 2021, commended the efforts of the ICT sector by admitting that the sector played the major role in pulled Nigeria out of recession.
“Because the growth rate in ICT/IT sector equalized the negative growth rate of the other sectors made Nigeria to exit recession before the last quarter of 2020 as against the prediction that the recession will last till end of 2021
“In Africa and with all sense of humility, Nigeria today has the largest digital economy, it has the largest ICT space and the largest internet penetration.
“In 2021 Nigerian startups contributed $1.37 billion to the GDP, with South Africa coming second with $500 million accruals.
“Furthermore, in the second quarter of 2021, ICT sector contributed 17.90% to our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and this is unprecedented in the history of Nigeria.
“This has never happened except in the second quarter of 2021 and this is what the sector is doing for the Nigerian economy not only for the digital economy but all the other sector of the economy.”
Pantami, explained that ICT and Digital Technology combined has become the enabler of all other sectors, stressing: You can now use digital technology in unlocking opportunities in all other sectors whether it is in finance, health, education, defence and agriculture.
“If you look at the performance of the financial sector you will discover that more than 80% of their services is from the digital service and that is why the contribution of ICT is 17.90% and if it is digital economy then you have to accommodate digital service and if you look at the contribution of that to the GDP it is about 45% of our GDP.”
On indigenous content, he said: “It is about the misconception of the word local and in this regard remain a promoter of using indigenous content, secondly, it is with 2 major challenges that we must put our hands together to address.
“First, the issue of raising the quantity of our indigenous percentage comes to the fore because Nigeria with a population of more than 200 million people is not a small investment that will cater for this population, so we need to enhance the quantity of what we produce and secondly with the global competition we need to also enhance the quality.
“This can be achieved in two ways: we need to work hard and attract more investors into the sector because this is leader of the knowledge-based economy and so we need to attract investors and by attracting more investors we will be able to increase the quantity and secondly when it comes to quality we can do that through international partnership with world class ICT manufacturers and if we do these 2 things we will be able to enhance the quality and at the same time increase the quantity significantly.”
While setting up the committee to monitor performance in the ministry, Pantami, tasked the Council members to ensure effective implementation of the policies in their respective states as contained in the policy document, with a view to further growing the nation’s digital economy sector.
NCC, NITDA, NIPOST, NIGCOMSAT and GALAXY BACKBONE participated actively at the meeting.
