The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami has expressed Nigeria’s willingness to partner with Finland to achieve the nation’s digital economy plan.
Pantami stated this in Abuja while playing host to a Finnish business delegation led by the Finnish Deputy Minister for International Trade, Nina Vaskunlahti in the company of the Finnish Ambassador to Nigeria, Leena Pylvanainen.
Pantami who was represented by the Ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Mr. Bitrus Bako welcomed the Finnish business delegation and assured them of increased cooperation.
The Minister noted that; “We are looking forward to partnering Finland in developing our digital economy sector. I want to appreciate your plea for increased cooperation in the field of trade.
“Our national development plan is innovation-driven we cannot do by ourselves.
“We need countries like Finland that are already developed digitally with an economy that is ICT and innovation driven to help us to drive this our national development plan.”
According to Pantami, Nigeria is diversifying from oil and gas and that the government is going digital.
“We rely so much on oil and gas but definitely as we all know the developed nation’s are divesting from oil and gas. So we have no other choice than to diversify.
“Our attention has gone to digital economy and it will surprise you to know that the digital economy sector has been the fastest-growing sector of the economy. We have looked at the digital economy as the only alternative to oil and gas.”
He added that the digitalisation process has challenges and it will be a welcomed idea to partner Finland in solving the challenges.
“We have challenges in the digitalisation process and all we request is your cooperation and increased cooperation not only in trade but in all aspects of life that will develop the Nigerian economy.“
The Finnish Deputy Minister for International Trade Nina Vaskunlahti, explained that Finland is interested in partnering with Nigeria offers huge opportunities for Finnish companies and sustainable digitalisation, “We are interested in partnering with Nigeria because Nigeria offers a huge opportunity to cooperate with Finnish companies and we have a lot to offer in the field of digitalisation, innovation and how to how to create ecosystems together.
“We have developed technologies on digitalisation and we know how to make digitalisation sustainable and ethical
“We believe that digitalisation leads to security and safety of society, we are here to share our experience, findings and cooperations with you.” She added
According to her, “Government don’t do business but create the enabling environment.
“What we have been talking about for the past three days is getting together Nigerian companies and organisations on how to work together.”
On how Finland can assist Nigeria in decongesting her seaports Vaskunlahti stated that can be done with the aid of digitalised seaport traffic control system.
“They could assist by having a digitalised traffic control system. That will be a very good way to go forward,“ she said
NOKIA Regional Sales Leader, Shadi Sayed affirmed that NOKIA wants to be part of the Nigerian digitalisation transformation process.
“Communication and ICT is not only for people to communicate with each other. It ‘s a platform to enable the digital transformation, to enable the digital economy, to digitalise the different sectors, to promote the SME’s, the entrepreneurs and build the ecosystem
“So I’m really glad. Since I’m coming from Nokia and I’m representing Nokia Enterprise which is mainly focusing on digitising the different sectors and segments whether it’s energy whether it’s transportation whether it’s government networks. whether it’s public safety. Of course, we have another unit which work more closely with the mobile operator.”
“But in my role, I look more to establish a direct relationship with the different ministries and definitely a communication and digital economy is the starting point,“ he emphasised
Sayed also noted that NOKIA will touch other aspects of communications, “We talk about 5G, we will talk about IoT (Internet of Things), of course, I have seen a lot of friends here responsible for the spectrum and frequency which is a very important asset for the government and this digitisation journey. But also we will be really glad to put together a roadmap. About this digital transformation.”
And that they will bring their wealth of experience and knowledge to Nigeria.
“Maybe we can bring our global experience, our global knowledge in the different sectors and the will be happy to work together and take the discussion forward,“ he added
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