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President Muhammadu Buhari has assured the global community of Nigeria’s readiness to partner with investors across critical sectors including the country’s fledgling digital economy where government is increasingly encouraging adoption of new technologies, and novel innovation-driven business models by young people.
The Nigerian president gave this assurance during his remarks at Nigeria’s Special Day at the Expo 2020 Dubai. The World Expo is the largest international exhibitions on the planet that takes place every five years. Expo 2020 is a World Expo, currently hosted by Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Originally scheduled for 20 October 2020 to 10 April 2021, it was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The six-month expo which started October 1, 2021 is ending March 31, 2022 with the theme “Connecting Minds, Creating the Future”.
President Buhari was accompanied by a delegation of state governors and ministers including Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Prof. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Jideofor Onyeama, Minister of Trade, Industry and Investment, Otunba Niyi Adebayo; and Governor Nasir eL Rufai of Kaduna State.
The Nigeria’s Special Day at the Expo 2020 Dubai is part of series of ‘Investment-showpiece’ activities to draw further attention to investment opportunities in Africa’s biggest economy with one of the largest youth populations on the continent. The event was managed by the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade & Investment; the Nigeria Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC) in collaboration with the Nigerian Arabian Gulf Chamber of Commerce (NAGCC).
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Despite several drawbacks, Nigeria’s huge youth population offers a strategic position to develop a strong digital economy which has experienced significant growth in the last few years as a fallout of reforms by President Buhari through the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy to anchor the economy on digital transformation.
Nigeria’s ICT sector recorded an unprecedented 17.92% contribution in the second quarter of 2021 (Q2 2021) – its highest ever contribution to the country’s GDP according to the 2nd Quarter 2021 GDP Report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
According to the president, while Nigeria seeks to drive investments in agriculture and non-oil sectors including the services industry, it is anchoring the entire digital transformation of the economy on human capital and infrastructure developments.
According to one report, the global digital economy is worth US $11.5 trillion, equivalent to 15.5 percent of global GDP. It has grown two and a half times faster than global GDP over the past 15 years, almost doubling in size since the year 2000.
