Minister berates low result to ICT by Nigerians
WITH an average of 9.58 per cent contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and rated as one of the fastest growing sector in the Nigerian market, the Minister of Communications, Adebayo Shittu, has said that the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) industry has no commensurate impact on the Nigeria citizens.The minister expressed this in his keynote address titled: «Continuing Innovation While Innovating Continuity: Creating a BRIGHT Digital Nigeria» at the maiden Communicating Sector Retreat held in Ibadan, Oyo State, at the weekend.
Shittu said the precedence of the Ministry of Communication was to create empowering grow and infrastructure required to support the ICT market.
The minister said the challenges of service lacks, to last mile fibre optic connectivity from broadband penetration, and infrastructure deficit are preventing Nigerians from obtaining affordable and dependable accessibility.
According to him, CLEVER strategy of the government would decrease the cost of governing while making revenue creation more easy authorities.
Lagos state He expressed government would boost online payments and support the enforcement for example stamp duties while also using technology to ensure accountability.
The sector potentials, according to him, have not been fully used to enable the citizens feel the impact, stressing that the Information Technology (IT) outsourcing and e-Commerce sector alone could use over 40 million Nigerians and contribute billions of dollars to the market when suitably directed.
The minister, who recently headed a business delegation to China and after conversations with all the investment community and unveiling investment possible in the Nigerian ICT sector, the Chinese investors are determined to come to the united states to speculate about $15 billion into ICT sector.
Shittu, who last week returned from two international conferences on space technology in Belarus and China where he marketed the cyberspace and telecommunications sector possibility to foreign investors in Nigeria. This visit also coincided with all the award of a Carrier Spectrum Management (CSM) contract to one of the agencies in the ministry, Nigeria Communications Satellite Limited (NigComSat), by the Federal Republic of Nigeria of Belarus.
The minister stated the ICT getaway is progressive diversification and development along with an integral component for inclusive of the market in Nigeria.
Additionally speaking, the Oyo State Governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi, while the getaway is opened by declaring, noted that ICT was not useless n virtually all human life.
Ajimobi, who commended the minister for organizing the refuge, stated that ICT had come to the rescue of the dwindling market as an outcome of the decline on the planet price oil.
He called to generate a pattern for the growth of the sector and improvement in employment in the nation.