To the Federal Government, Information and Communications Technology (ICT), remains a veritable source of turning around the present economy, particularly, by increasing local content and tapping from the skills and talents of the youths.
Minister of Communications, Adebayo Shittu, is optimistic that with the right policies and collaboration of both private and public sectors, chances are high that the sector could create enough jobs for the youths.
He had at the recently held National Council on Communications meeting in Kaduna, where major industry stakeholders were present, said ICT has a lot of roles to play in the country’s human capital development, stressing that the drivers of this are the youths.
According to him, the nation needs to key into this, so as to develop their potential, nurture them and create them into a crop of experts whose expertise could be ‘exported’ for the country to earn foreign exchange.
Shittu said China and India have done this, so Nigeria as the most populous black nation in the world can do the same because of the vast human and population resources.
In driving the government’s vision for the industry, especially in the area of local content development, he alluded to his ministry’s plan to establish a multi campus ICT University and National Digital Literacy Council.
According to him, the importance of establishing an ICT University cannot be over emphasised.
“The time is ripe and has come for it to become a reality because the world has gone global and ICT is the in thing and the way to go. If you look at the world today, ICT has become big business and any country that fails to key into this would find itself lagging behind all others. So many things today are done and accomplished by ICT, the world has become stronger and more at home with a click of a computer mouse or a tap on the keyboard with raw physical strength.
“It is time for Nigeria to find its feet and move forward with the times. The way to do this is to fast-track the realisation of the ICT University, which would ensure the country claims its seat at the table of countries which have been able to make their bold statements in this sector. There are lots of things to gain if the government goes ahead with this plan and it would go a long way to engage our youths and provide jobs for them,” he stated.
According to him, there are so many employment opportunities to be explored if good attention is placed in this direction and the youths are capable of filling in this gap.
The minister said it has become important to focus on this sector because as government itself is focusing on cost saving services, it is important to get the youths trained so as to have Nigerians engaged in the sector.
Giving statistics of the improvement in the telecommunications sector as at August, Shittu said there has been increase in the number of subscribers in the telecoms sector, which has grown from 148.70 million in August 2015 to 152.28 million as at August this year, an increase of 5.9 per cent.
“In the same vein, Tele-density rose from 107.67 per cent in August 2015 to 109.14 per cent in August 2016, thus recording an increase of 1.47 per cent. This has led to Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the sector from $32 billion in 2015 to $38 billion this year. With all these growth, Nigeria has become the second largest telecom sector after South Africa. This is an area the country needs to invest in so as to allow the youths to get equipped in this sector,” he added.
According to him, the next big revenue earner for the country apart from oil, and perhaps agriculture is the telecoms sector, stressing that the sector for the first time in six years, is contributing as much as 9.8 per cent of the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP).
He said the National Bureau of Statistics reports that the telecommunications sector contributed N1,580 trillion to GDP in the second quarter of 2016 or 9.8 per cent, which represents an increase of one per cent point relative to the previous quarter. This is the largest contribution to the GDP made from this sector in the rebased period, which emphasizes that growth in telecommunications has remained robust when compared to Nigeria’s total GDP.
Besides, the minister informed of the development coming to the Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST), saying there are new vistas of jobs to be created for the youths if it begins banking and insurance services, as these would need experts to upload facilities and services of the bank’s branches nationwide on ICT platforms.
“Even as NIPOST is a behemoth with offices all over the country and in remote areas too, it would need the expertise of those in the communications sector to link these networks and this would get our youths engaged,” he stated
According to him, ICT has spread its tentacles to every sphere of our life, and there is a need to open up the space and use it for the creation, storage, manipulation and communication of information.
He hinted that a lot of start-ups in different areas such as health, education, agriculture and e-commerce have sprung up and they need to be encouraged to succeed and contribute their quota to the country’s economic growth and development.
According to him, this can only be achieved if we create the awareness in the sector to give Nigeria and its youth a dynamic ecosystem in technology.
Information has it that the Ministry of Communications is working closely with its Education counterpart to foster Digital Literacy Content in the national curriculum.
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