Communications Minister Urges States On Creating Ministry of Digital Economy

The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof. Isa Pantami, has advised state governments to create a ministry of digital economy in order to boost economic growth and be able to access numerous opportunities in the Digital Economy sector.

Pantami, who called on other states to emulate Imo and Edo states in the creation of a ministry of digital economy, affirmed that digital economy had contributed significantly to economic growth, job creation, as well as increase in the revenue generation of the federation than any other sector and cannot be left under another ministry.

He stated this when he led top officials of the Ministry and agencies under the Ministry to the Executive Council Chamber of the Governor’s Office, Secretariat, Agodi, Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, on a courtesy visit to Governor Seyi Makinde in appreciation of Makinde’s decision to host the ongoing 10th meeting on the National Council on Communication and Digital Economy, held in Ibadan.

The Minister affirmed that the Digital Economy sector had contributed significantly to economic growth, saying ICT alone contributed 18.44 percent revenue to the economy in the second quarter of 2022 and encouraged all states of the federation to establish a state ministry of digital economy so as to enjoy the enormous opportunities that abound in job creation with the creation of the ministry.

He said: “At the Federal level, from 2019 when I took over till date, I was given a mandate to increase revenue generation and based on independent assessment by foreign commonwealth and development office of the UK, and KPMG, it was discovered that we have increased revenue generation in the digital economy sector by 594 percent.

“Recently, we signed an MoU with Microsoft where they will train 5 million Nigerians for free and not only in basic trainings but cutting edge trainings, high demand skills required globally and particularly, today that there is a mismatch between our curriculum in some higher institutions of learning and the opportunities out there,” Pantami noted.

The Minister explained that the trainings, along with many trainings that are ongoing with state ministries, would address the existing mismatch so that citizens could be employed both locally and internationally.

Governor Seyi Makinde, who was represented by the Secretary to the State Government, Mrs Olubamiwo Adeosun, said his administration is keying into the Federal Government policies by transiting from manual to digital administration, noting that his administration understood that ICT was critical to the progress and impact it desired to make since its inception in 2019.

Makinde said: “In Oyo State, we understood that for us to make progress and improve our economy which is actually one of our strategic points, expanding our economy, that investing in digital economy was very important. So, from the very beginning we had policy and framework on ICT on our digital economy that we’ve just been ticking the boxes on to get to where we are now.”

He disclosed that his administration had invested in the hardware and software and also in trainings to change the mindset of workers so they would begin to think more digitally than manually and move the state from a manual or analogue administration, working towards fully digitalising the processes and practises in the state.

The governor affirmed that his administration would take note of what could be done about creating a ministry of digital economy, as requested by the minister, because it is clear that Information Technology (ICT) is the future.

Olusola Akintonde