NAN-H-99
Partnership
By Donald Ugwu
Abuja, Nov. 22, 2016 (NAN) Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has assured that the public sector is ready to collaborate with the private sector to advance ICT toward economic diversification.
Osinbajo gave the assurance in his address to the e-Nigeria Summit 2016 with the theme: `Leveraging ICT Innovation for Economic Diversification’’.
He noted that collaboration is the key to economic and social advancement of the country and cannot not be ignored in the country’s ICT agenda.
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“Collaboration is the key; today there is nowhere in the world where technology is developing without collaboration.
“Collaboration between the private and the public sector; even between the private sector, everyone is working in collaboration.
“Developing incredible technology today means that several people from across the world are working together, online, being able to ensure that they share ideas and share innovation.
“But we need that kind of collaboration also between the private and the public sector.
“The public sector today is willing to collaborate with the private sector.
“That willingness is evidenced in practically everything that we are doing and the investments that we are making in technology.
“I think that this is a great moment for technology in our country.
“I think that we have everything that is required to make things happen.’’
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Osinbajo remarked that three months ago, the country demonstrated its resolve to support technology innovation by hosting the maiden annual Aso Villa Demo Day for young innovators.
He said the start-ups demonstrated by the youth showed clearly the direction the country was going, adding that with enabling environment and determination the youth were ready for world class achievements in technology.
Accordingly, he said, the government would provide the policy and incentives that would enable ICT to advance and unleash the talent and the hard work of young people.
The Minister of Communications, Mr Adebayo Shittu, said e-Nigeria had become a means of setting goals, targets and timelines for domestication of best practices and repositioning Nigeria as a key player in the global knowledge-driven economy.
Shittu noted that ICT had contributed in a short time more than 12.62 per cent to total nominal GDP and 12.68 per cent to total real GDP in the second quarter of 2016.
He said the ICT revolution offered an opportunity for national adjustment to fast changing and knowledge-driven economy, transform Nigeria to open, smart and very inclusive economy.
He also said it offered new tools and platforms to address such challenges in areas as governance, employment, demand for public services, export diversification, structural transformation and global competitiveness.
According to him ICT is the enabler of every other human endevour, whether economic, governmental or industrial.
Shittu said the federal government had evolved a national roadmap for ICT sector by identifying key projects that would have positive impacts on the national economy.
He identified the objectives of the 2016 to 2019 roadmap as establishing multi campus ICT University to provide skills for industry players as well as creation of innovation hubs nationwide and establishing of global telecommunications village.
He added that it focused on the establishment of ICT departments in the Ministries, Departments and Agencies that were yet to have such.
Shittu said the ministry would encourage the deployment of internet broadband to enable the youth to have unlimited access to the internet.
In an address of welcome, the DG of NITDA, Dr Isa Ibrahim, said that Nigeria lost about $2.8 billion annually from the importation of ICT goods and services, including $1 billion spent on software imports.
He said locally manufactured or assembled computers represented less than eight per cent of all the computers used in the country.
Ibrahim added that the country could spend about $143.8 billion on ICT by 2019, an amount that would be seven times the value of the 2016 national budget.
He pleaded with international manufacturers to domesticate their products in order to achieve a win-win relationship while pledging the development of local content in the industry.
The D-G said the theme of the 2016 edition of e-Nigeria, the ninth in the series, was deliberately chosen to align with the Federal Government’s drive to diversify the economy.
Prof. Abubakar Sambo, the Keynote Speaker, and former Vice Chancellor of the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU) Bauchi, said that the world had been driven by a large scale amalgamation of global markets and dramatic growth in ICT.
Sambo said time had come to adopt ICT in Nigeria as a catalyst for national development especially in agriculture and commerce. (NAN)
DCU/YEE
Edited by Emmanuel Yashim
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