By Dele Ogbodo
The Minister of Communications, Mr. Adebayo Shittu has said that Information Communication Technology (ICT) sector
has attracted increased Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) from $32 billion in 2015 to $40 billion in 2018.
He made this known during the official Session of the 6th regular meeting of the National Council on Communication Technology (NCCT) taking place at the June 12 Cultural Centre in Abeokuta with a theme “Leveraging ICT as the Veritable Vehicle for Economic Recovery and Growth”.
The Minister said that the performance of the Telecommunications industry has also improved noting that there was a positive increase in the number of active telecoms subscribers with an increase from 148,70 million in august 2015 to 162.05 million as at September 2018, which is an increase of 7%.
According to him “Teledensity rose from 107.67% in August 2015 to 115.76% in September 2018, thus recording an increase of 2.47%. Similarly, Broadband penetration has reached 20.95%, while the percentage of internet penetration has reached a milestone 48.44%, making Nigeria, second only to South Africa in the whole of the African Continent”. Shittu stated
He added that the sector today is one of the fastest growing despite the economic recession and contributed 9.8% in GDP in 2014. The challenge is how to leverage the opportunities thrown up by the new economy powered by ICT to address the issues of revenue, investments, cost savings, employment generation, and national productivity among others.
Shittu pointed out that this year’s meeting is unique as it focuses on how the highly acknowledged potentials of the ICT Sector can be used to achieve the main policy objectives of Economic Recovery and Growth in view of the dwindling fortunes from oil and Gas.
In his words “ In pursuit of the National agenda, we have continued to reposition the ICT Sector in the areas of infrastructure and industry development, local content optimization, enabling policy, legal and regulatory framework; deepening of ICT in Government and mainstreaming of ICT into all spheres of national life among others”.
He reported that government has recorded remarkable achievements in ICT sector which includes improving the strategic ecosystem framework of the ICT sector through development of a number of policy instruments including the Nigeria ICT Roadmap and the National Addressing Policy, Provision of Internet access to about 400 MDAs, over 11,000 nodes of wireless LAN to all MDAs at the Federal Secretariat, and over 40,000 email addresses for Government officials under the gov.ng & mil.ng domains.
In a remark, the Managing Director, Fintrak Software, Mr. Bimbo Abioye, who spoke on behalf of the Institute of Software Practitioner of Nigeria (ISPON), urged government to provide enabling environment for software industry to thrive.
He frowned at the habit of importation of foreign ICT products and goods into the country and advocated for a change in order to create employment in the country.
Also, the President of Certified Computer Manufacturers of Nigeria (CCMON) Mrs. Adenike Abudu urged people and the government to patronize local manufacturers in order to create more jobs in ICT sector adding that through collective promotion of Nigeria we move the country to the next level.