Minister of Communications, Dr. Isa Ibrahim Pantami By Emmanuel Elebeke The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Ali ...
By Emmanuel Elebeke
The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami has assured that the digital economy will contribute more than 45 per cent of the nation’s GDP by the end of the year, as the contribution of the ICT sector alone is now approximately 15 per cent.
This is even as the Minister also assured that the broadband plan 2020-2025 which focused more on broadband penetration will boost the penetration to 50 percent by the end of the year.
With the current broadband penetration level now standing at 42.0 percent, Pantami said the Ministry will continue to leverage the covid-19 era to achieve digital economy development.
The Minister was speaking at the virtual Nigeria Internet Governance Forum 2020 (vNIGF) with the theme: “ Achieving Inclusive Digital Economic Development in the Post-COVID 19 Era”.
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He charged all stakeholders to redouble their efforts to achieve the Digital Nigeria dream.
In his goodwill message, the Director-General, National Information Technology Development Agency, (NITDA) Mallam Kashifu Inuwa Abdullah, described the event as apt, saying that COVID19 has compelled the government to move all its activities to online platform.
“As this is a new era and it is important for government to ensure that the infrastructure it need to keep governance up and running when all government organisations fully come on board to use the internet is already in place.”
Abdullahi, who was represented at the event by the Director, e-Government Development and Regulation Dr Vincent Olatunji, argued that the campaign to move government businesses online has now become a reality, adding that there was no other choice than for government to deliver its services online.
The NITDA boss revealed that the Office of the Head of Service of the Federation is set to formally approve and recommend virtual meetings, programmes and workshops for all government officials in the country in order to facilitate digital economy.
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