How Africa, Europe can collaborate to tap benefit of digital economy -Osinbajo

Africa and Europe must work together to advance and harvest the economic benefits of digital economy, andat the same time prevent a counter-productive widening of the digital gap,according to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN.

Prof. Osinbajo stated this today at the Africa-Europe High-Level Forum inVienna, Austria, which had in attendance other African and European Heads ofStates or Government.

The meeting organized by the European Union and African Union, held in Vienna,Austria on Monday, December 17, and Tuesday, December 18.

Speaking on the forum’s theme ‘Taking cooperation to the digital age’, the VicePresident noted that investments in digital technology can make importantcontribution to growth and development by fostering productivity gains fromcontinuous innovation.

He said, “Given our fast-growing population in Africa, we are, of course,keen to work together to boost the job creation potential of new technologiesrather than concentrating on jobs destined to disappear in the digital age.Faster growth, sustainable development and job creation are also vital forreducing irregular migration from Africa to Europe. In our globalized world,people can see disparities in standards of living across regions quite easily.This means there must be increasing openings for entrepreneurship and jobs inhome countries for those who would otherwise embark on risk journeys in searchof opportunities. In Nigeria we are taking urgent and practical steps toprovide such opportunities for our rapidly increasing youth population.”

Prof. Osinbajo also highlighted the strides made by the Buhariadministration in developing Nigeria’s technology sectorthrough supporting public-private sector initiatives and the advisorygroup on technology and creativity. 

Noting that the advisory group has been working to build an ecosystem forfunding, training, infrastructure and intellectual property protection, theVice President added that the country’s Social Investment Programme has beenleveraging on technology tools to drive it in its bid to improve the economyand lives of Nigerians.

He said, “Under our social investment programme, 75,000 young people are beingtrained in coding, software development, hardware maintenance, animation anddata management, and we’re set to train another 200,000 young men and women.Similarly, we have established 8 technology hubs to support tech startupsacross our six geopolitical zones and two major cities of Abuja and Lagos.

“We’ve encouraged partnership to establish venture funds to support innovationand are now engaged in talks to establish a $500 million innovation funds withbilateral and multilateral partners.

“We’ll be deploying digital methods and tools on a larger scale to expandlearning opportunities for younger Nigerians, as conventional education throughbrick and mortar institution can no longer be viable given the huge numbers andlimited resources. Already, 200,000 out of our 500,000 young graduates in ourN-Power scheme have tablet devices, which we use for on-the-job training andfurther skills acquisition. This experience will guide our efforts as we seekto expand digital literacy at earlier stages of education.

“Similarly, our education curriculum is being reworked to emphasize Science,Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics. The Arts have been includedbecause of the growing recognition of the strengths of our country, especiallyin the arts, music, film and literature.”

Prof. Osinbajo also highlighted the growth in e-commerce in Nigeria, withreferences to leading e-commerce platforms that have leveraged on technology togrow their businesses.

He said, “Financial technology is being used in our efforts to rapidly scale upfinancial inclusion. Working with our banks, TELCOs and FinTech companies,we’ve used digital tools and platforms to provide interest-free micro loans toup to 1.3 million Nigerians and about 300,000 received Conditional CashTransfers by the same means. We hire, pay and train online 500,000 young menand women in the largest post-tertiary direct jobs programme in Africa. Throughparticipation in this scheme, present and future beneficiaries would be broughtinto databases for unique biometric identification.

The Vice president also thanked European countries for their support, whilecalling on other EU member states to partner with Nigeria and Africa to impartskills, raise resources, promote investment and provide infrastructure to builda digital economy.

“I’m optimistic that our efforts would attract strong support and activeengagement of our partners in the European Union. Indeed, already, we have somegood examples of that in the African Digital leaders Training programme, whichis a partnership between Ventures Platform of Nigeria and Enterprise Lithuaniawith funding from the European Union. This innovative programme would providedigital skills training for 50 young Nigerians in Lithuania, while at the sametime, relieving temporary labour shortage in that country. A reintegrationcomponent is also built into the package.

“We have a moment in the history of Europe-Africa relations that can yieldtremendous mutual benefits. Let us seize this moment,” he said.

Several African and European Heads of Government attended the High-Level forum.They include the Austrian Federal Chancellor, Sebastian Kurz; the PrimeMinisters of Netherlands, Mark Rutte; Poland, Mateusz Morawiecki; Hungary,Viktor Orban; Czech Republic, Andrej Babis; and deputy Prime Minister ofIreland. African Heads of Government at the meeting include the Presidentof Rwanda, who is also the Chairperson of the African Union, Paul Kagame;President of Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo; Egypt’s Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi; Kenya’sUhuru Kenyatta; and Prime Minister of Mauritius, Pravind Kumar, among others.

Earlier on Monday night, Prof. Osinbajo had an interactive session withthe Nigerian community in Austria during a town hall meeting.

At the meeting attended by leading members of the Nigerian community inVienna, the Vice President commended the work of Nigerians in Diaspora,noting that that the Nigerian community was adding value to the country.

Prof Osinbajo said, “We very strongly believe that our country can do muchbetter than where we are, we have practically everything that it takes to makethe country work. In fact we have more than what it takes to make the countrydo exceedingly well; there is no question about that. But corruption hasbeen the major problem in the country.

Adding that Nigeria must tackle “the monster of corruption,”, theVice President added, “there is no country in the world that can survivewhen its resources are stolen the way our resources were stolen. It doesn’treally matter how you slice it or describe it, so long as a few people can takegovernment or public resources and do with it as they like, they are not likelyto be able to do the basic.”

He also urged Nigerians to continue to support the work of the administrationin making the country better through provision of more infrastructure andtackling grand corruption, among other development initiatives.

“Today our country earns 60 per cent less than it earned five years ago, but wehave spent N2.7 trillion in two budget cycle in infrastructure, that is thehighest in the history of our country,” he said.

In attendance at the town hall meeting were the Nigerian Ambassadorto Austria, Amb. Vivian Okeke; the Nigerian Ambassador to Hungary, Dr. EniolaAjayi; leaders of Nigerian communities in Austria, and other seniorgovernment officials.