Government to leverage on ICT, economic diversification to create jobs

President Muhammadu Buhari has assured of his administration’s commitment to leverage Information Communication Technology (ICT) platforms to create jobs, while ensuring that economic diversification creates more support to other emerging sectors this year.

He made this commitment in a New Year address to Nigerians, urging them to have hope and envision a year of continued progress against the challenges arising from security and socio-economic issues.

He, however, disclosed that several foreign investors are taking advantage of the nation’s ranking as one of the leading start-up ecosystems in Africa to invest in its digital economy.

He said: “The major wins we have recorded can be clearly seen in Nigeria’s most recent Gross Domestic Product (GDP) figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). The 4.03 per cent growth recorded in the third quarter of 2021 is indicative of the recovery being recorded in our economy and the confidence that is being shown through the policies that our administration has put in place after the outbreak of the pandemic.

“We may also recall that this recent growth is closely followed by the 5.1 per cent (year on year) growth in real terms recorded by Nigeria in second quarter of 2021. This growth was one of the best recorded by any nation across Sub-Saharan Africa. The 5.1 per cent growth at that time was and remains the highest growth recorded by the Nigerian economy since 2014,” he stated.

Buhari said despite the challenges the nation faced in 2021, the good news is that it has so far recorded four consecutive quarters of growth after the negative growth rates recorded in second quarter and third quarter of 2020 due to the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Guardian