Thursday, November 7

Shittu: Why Nigeria Needs ICT to Drive Development

The Minister of Communications, Barr. Adebayo Shittu has said that Nigeria more than ever before needs Information and Communications Technology (ICT) to drive its all inclusive growth and development, because she cannot remain an island in the ongoing global ICT revolution.
Shittu, who stated this in a statement signed by Mr. Henshaw Ogubike of the ministry on Wednesday in Abuja, said the disclosure was made at the just concluded National Council on Communications Technology (NCCT) which held at the Katsina State capital.
The Minister while appreciating the government of Katsina State for hosting the event said government is realigning on ICT sector to drive its development agenda, stressing that the growth of the sector has contributed 9.8 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Shittu said: “Due to the rapid growth of the sector and remarkable contributions it made to GDP has made the federal government to issue the country’s ICT roadmap and are working on reviewing the National ICT Policy which would bring about increasing access, improvement of quality of service, extension of average to unser
ved, and underserved.”
The major goal the statement added is to provide cost effective and ubiquitous access to ICT for overall national development.
According to him, NCCT is the highest government sectoral advisory body on ICT that brings together several stakeholders to discuss   and harness feasible and implementable recommendation that can inform policy and on how to use ICT as a tool for economic recovery.
Speaking earlier, the Governor of Katsina State Alhaji Aminu Bello Masari, thanked the Minister for choosing Katsina State to hold this noble meeting. 
He added that ICT is an essential tool and remains the main focus. Therefore, Katsina State government is paying a special attention to ICT which made the government to allocate 20 percent of its budget to education to be able to harness all that it entails in ICT.

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