By Chimezie Godfrey
The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof. Isa Ali Ibrahim (Pantami) has said that the ministry through the ICT sector generated N408.7bn to the coffers of the Federal Government.
Pantami made the declaration Monday in Abuja, at a press conference in celebration of the “Digital Nigeria Day 2022” and “United Nation’s World Development Information Day”.
While reeling out the scorecard of their stewardship in the development of Nigeria’s digital economy, the Minister declared that the revenue generated from the ICT sector enabled the country exit recession.
He noted that so far, the ministry has delivered on its mandate in the 8 areas as they were mandate by President Muhammadu Buhari at inception.
He said,”
The Digital Nigeria Day also doubles as the United Nations’ World Development Information Day. The United Nations Resolution A/RES/65/141 announced this date and noted that “Information and communications technologies have the potential to provide new solutions to development challenges, particularly in the context of globalization, and can foster economic growth, competitiveness, access to information and knowledge, poverty eradication and social inclusion.”
“Nigeria’s Digital Economy: Some Achievements.
The ICT sector provided 3 unprecedented contributions to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country in the last 3 years, namely 14.07% in Q1 2020, 17.92% in Q2 2021 and 18.44% in Q2 2022. At each time, these numbers been the highest ever contribution of the ICT sector to the GDP.
“Also, the ICT sector grew by 14.70% in Q4 2020, making it the fastest growing sector of the Nigerian economy in the last quarter of 2020 and the only sector to have grown by double digits. This played a critical role in enabling Nigeria to exit recession.
“Furthermore, the quarterly revenues also generated for the Federal Government rose from N51.3 billion to N408.7 billion, through spectrum sales and taxes from the sector.”
Pantami noted that in an assessment, the ministry obtained the highest grade in each of its 8 Ministerial Deliverables.
“It is also worthy of note that the Ministry excelled at the recently concluded Retreat that was held for all Ministers. The assessment was carried out by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), United Kingdom and KPMG, among others, in partnership with the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation in the Presidency.
“The assessment was based on the output indicators and milestones for the 8 Ministerial Deliverables and the Ministry obtained the highest grade in each of the deliverables. The scores of the Ministry for each deliverable is given below:
i. Implementation of Broadband Connectivity – 134%
ii. Deployment of 4G across the country – 127%
iii. Digitalising Government functions and processes – 99%
iv. Development and implementation of a National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy – 103%
v. Implementation of a Digital Identity Programme – 86%
vi. Improvement and optimization of revenues from all operators and licensees in the agencies under the Ministry’s supervision – 594%
vii. Active collaboration with the Private Sector to create jobs – 111%.
viii. Empowerment of citizens – 137%.”
He added,”We now have a Nigeria Startup Act, following Mr President’s signing of the Nigeria Startup Bill (NSB) on the 18th of October, 2022. We collaborated with the Office of the Chief of Staff to the President to develop the NSB and I presented it at the Federal Executive Council (FEC) on the 15th of December, 2021. It was approved and then sent to the National Assembly.
“The signing of the Nigeria Startup Act as a principal legislation is a major achievement that will significantly enhance the innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem in Nigeria.”
Pantami disclosed that some of the other policies developed include:
National Digital Economy Policy & Strategy 2020-2030 (NDEPS), November 2019;
Roadmap for the Implementation of the NDEPS, November 2019;
SIM Card Registration Policy, February 2020;
Nigeria National Broadband Plan 2020-2025, March 2020;
National Policy on VSAT Installation Core Skills for Nigerians, March 2021;
National Policy for the Promotion of Indigenous Content in the Telecommunications Sector, May 2021; Revised National Digital Identity Policy for SIM Card Registration, May 2021;
National Policy on Digital Identity for Internally Displaced Persons, May 2021;
The Rule Making Process Regulation of NIPOST, May 2021;
and National Policy on Fifth Generation (5G) Networks for Nigeria’s Digital Economy, September 2021.
Others
are the National Policy on Virtual Engagements in Federal Public Institutions, 2021;
National Policy on Device Management System, 2021;
National Policy for the Management of the National Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, November 2021;
National Digital Innovation & Entrepreneurship Policy, June 2021; National Policy on the Nigerian Government Second-Level Domains, February 2022; National Dig-Once Policy (Stakeholder Engagement Ongoing); and
National Policy on Communication Satellite (Draft).
The Minister pointed out that over 863,372 citizens benefited from digital skills programmes and “we have agreements with leading global companies like Microsoft and Huawei, to train millions of Nigerians”.
According to him, on assumption of office on the 21st of August 2019, the official broadband penetration figures stood at 33.72% and “today it is 44.65%, representing close to 13 million new broadband users”.
“Similarly, there were 13,823 4G base stations and we now have 36,751, representing a 165.86% increase. The percentage 4G coverage across the country also increased from 23% to 77.52%.
“Additionally, the cost of data has crashed from N1,200 per GB to about N350, making it easier for Nigerians to connect to the Internet,” he said.
He added,”We have also developed an IT clearance portal to support inoperability, eliminate duplication and ensure value for money in the implementation of ICT projects in the country. The quarterly savings from the IT Projects’ Clearance Process rose from N12.45 million to N10.57 billion.
“We aim to create a pool of Innovation Driven Enterprises (IDEs) to accelerate the development of Nigeria’s digital economy. Through our efforts, 355,610 direct and indirect jobs were created.
“Privacy concerns are also being addressed through the newly established Nigeria Data Protection Bureau (NDPB). The drafting of the data protection bill has reached an advanced stage. The Digital Identity enrolments have also been very successful, with issued National Identification Numbers (NINs) rising from less than 40 million to over 90 million.
“We have been very active in the emerging technology space and even established the National Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (NCAIR), the first of such centres in Africa.
“As part of our efforts to promote indigenous content, we have developed a policy for promoting indigenous content in the telecom sector to complement similar efforts that focus on the information technology sector. This is important to stem the tide of capital flight, amongst other things.”
Pantami stressed that the efforts of the Ministry would continue to play a critical role in the development of the different sectors of the economy.
He therefore called for the support of all stakeholders to enable the ministry further accelerate the development of the sector.
Earlier, in his welcome address, the Director General, National Information Technology Development Agency, NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa noted that the “Digital Nigeria Day” was designated to promote digital economy in Nigeria.
Inuwa disclosed that the “Digital Nigeria Day 2022 celebration” would span for one week to enable them celebrate the achievements made so far in driving the country’s digital economy.
“And we are going to have a week long event to celebrate what we have achieved so far in driving Nigeria the economy.
“And today, the Minister of Communications is going to share with you the journey so far. And also the intention of this media parley is for you to go ahead and propagate what we have done so far and to tell the world that Nigeria is ready for digital transformation. Nigeria is ready for digital economy,” Inuwa declared.
Delivering the vote of thanks, the Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communication Commission, NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta expressed the commitment the NCC to sustain the Nigeria digital economy.
He congratulated the Minister, Prof. Pantami for championing the commemoration of the “Digital Nigeria Day 2022” celebration.
“So, I would like to express very strongly the commitment of the Nigerian Communication Commission to cooperate with other members of the digital family in order to ensure the actualization of the agenda that we set out this week, as well as our subsequent efforts we need to make in order to sustain the digital transformation momentum that we have gathered, and we are full motion until we achieve high results, in addition to what we have so far achieved,” he said.
Other stakeholders present at the event include representative of the National Identity Management Commission, NIMC, Nigerian Communications Satellite, NIGCOMSAT, Nigeria Data Protection Bureau, NDPB, among others.
