Nigeria’s Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Prof Isa Ali Pantami, has commended the contributions of the country’s Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector towards boosting the digital economy and GDP.
The Minister stated this at the weekend during the inauguration of the North-East Regional Office of Galaxy Backbone in Gombe, stressing that the project would benefit the entire six states in the region by improving the digital economy, providing job topportunities and enhancing cybersecurity.
According to the Minister, with the contributions of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), having the centre in the region would help consolidate the gains of the digital economy.
He said the Gombe Centre was part of the phase two of the National Information and Communications Infrastructure Backbone (NICTIB) Project.
Pantami also explained that the NICTIB 2 covers 18 states in the North and two states from the Southern part of the country that were not captured in the NICTIB 1, adding that the digital economy sector had supported the Federal Government’s effort at diversifying the economy.
Prof. Pantami said, “For many years, most probably 50 years, Nigeria relied so much on oil and gas. But today, we have reached a situation where the contribution of ICT to our gross domestic products (GDP) in Nigeria is almost three times the contribution of oil and gas to the country’s GDP.
“In the last three years, we have set up three unprecedented records with regards to ICT contributions to GDP,” Pantami said.
He explained that in the first quarter of 2020, ICT contributed 14.07 per cent to the GDP, while in the second quarter of 2021, ICT sector contributed 17.97 per cent.
In his words, “In the second quarter of 2022, the ICT sector contributed 18.44 per cent to our GDP, another unprecedented record. So we have set three new unprecedented records year-in-year out”.
Speaking earlier, the Managing Director of Galaxy Backbone Limited, Muhammad Abubakar, said that Galaxy remains committed to connecting all the 36 states of Nigeria into ICT infrastructure to power the nation’s digital economy.
“This Zonal and Marketing Office in Gombe also houses the Safe City infrastructure that will form a seed for Gombe to function as a Smart City,” he said.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): illiam Attah
Quelle/Source: Independent, 20.03.2023
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