Nigeria Can Leverage on ICT to Diversify Economy, Says Minister
The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr. Okechukwu Enelemah has stressed the need for the private sector to key into government initiatives by leveraging on Information and Communications Technology (ICT) to boost economic diversification in the era of crumbling oil boom.
The minister, who spoke in Lagos at the BusinessDay Technology Conference, with the theme ‘Beyond Oil: ICT As a Viable Alternative’, stressed the need for diversification of the Nigerian economy from over dependence on oil, through ICT initiatives. According to him, technology has made it easy and cost effective to reach out to a large number of people. One of the focus of the Buhari government is to ensure that all government programmes that have been launched are implemented to reach out to millions of Nigerians. In the past, government programmes have mainly been driven on a pilot phase and at the end of the day, not many people benefitted from it because it was seen as pilot programmes.
“So technology has a key role to play to ensure that government reaches out to a large number of audience, using ICT tools,” the minister said.
He explained that earlier this month, the federal government launched a presidential innovation competition from which will emerge, 50 talented technology ideas from people that will be matched with mentors for financial support as well as presidential recognition.
“ICT had always played important roles in supporting the government major reform projects in establishing an institutional culture of transparency in corporate finances. The Bank Verification Number (BVN) initiative was implemented in 2015 to serve as a biometric database for all bank holders’ accounts. From that initiative, government as able to detect over 40,000 ghost workers in the federal payroll, thus saving billions of naira monthly and that is just part of what ICT is doing for government,” Enelemah said.
He reiterated that the primary engine of growth in ICT is the private sector, adding, government’s role in this regard is to be an enabler of technology growth by creating the right environment for technology related businesses to thrive. “Government’s role is to set out clear and consistent policy to create a space for funding and investment, the minister added.
“This is why at the top of our five-fold agenda of the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, lies the ambition to create an enabling environment for industry, trade and investment. So we want to be known a ministry of enabling environment for ICT businesses”, he stressed.