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By Nwakaego Alajemba and Doris Minimah
Nigerian’s Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami has argued that the country’s future rests on digital economy and expressed conviction that emerging technologies and tech startups will redefine the global economy. Speaking at an interactive session with the media, over the weekend, in Abuja, Pantami said his ministry was focused on achieving a ‘Digital Nigeria’ by 2030 based on the key objectives of the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy launched by President Muhammadu Buhari during the eNigeria conference November last year.
The digital economy strategy is built on eight pillars. They are: Developmental Regulation; Digital Literacy and Skills Development; Service Infrastructure; Solid Infrastructure; Digital Services Promotion and Development; Soft Infrastructure; Digital Societies and Emerging Technologies and lastly Indigenous Content Development.
While the ministry has been invested with powers to coordinate and implement the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy, Pantami said all stakeholders have a role to ensuring that the 2030 Digital Nigeria Agenda is achieved.
“Our strategic policy … captures some actionable plans. The fact is that the implementation cannot be done by only one ministry. Other ministries can play a significant role towards its implementation. Our role at the ministry is to ensure that we coordinate the implementation so we need the collaboration of other ministries and stakeholders,” said Pantami.
Right environment for digital economy
According to him, his ministry was working to ensure that the right environment in terms of policy and legal frameworks, digital skill building and inter-government collaborations are put in place.
He said regulatory bodies, particularly those under his ministry such as the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), have been directed to come up with required procedures that will promote digital economy.
The environment must be made conducive for digital economy and at the same time, some regulatory instruments must be in place to allow for full implementation of the policy, said the minister. .
Skill building – To make 90% of Nigerians digital literates by 2030
“We want to embark on a massive training of Nigerians on digital literacy,” said Pantami, adding that the ministry will be embarking on a nationwide Digital Literacy Campaign targeting to have 90% of Nigerians become digital literates by 2030. Building and sustaining the digital economy will rely on availability of the required digital skill sets. “Many nations today realize this. As we are talking today, China is working on converting 600 universities to skills centres because digitalisation is more of about the skills not necessarily certificates. The certificates should just be for validation of your skills. That is why we have so many training classes such as Digital Nigeria for women, Digital Nigeria for journalist; Digital Nigeria for unemployed Youth; Digital Nigeria for unemployed graduates; Digital Nigeria for civil servants; Digital Nigeria for chief executives; Digital Nigeria for people with Disabilities; and Digital Nigeria for children among several others.
Emerging technologies and startups
For Pantami, “in the next 10 years, emerging technologies will dominate the world.” For this reason, he believes continuous investment in disruptive technologies and startups is critical. He assured that the ministry would lead the agenda to invest in these two items that drive the digital economy. Promotion of startups has featured strongly in both NCC and NITDA’s budget in the last five years. In the 2019 eNigeria, President Buhari honoured the Nigerian startups that emerged as winners in the global startup meet at the 2019 GITEX in Dubai. The startups were part of the teams sponsored by the NITDA to the GITEX startup meet.
Digital economy not about tax
The minister cautioned that the digital economy must not be seen as just a tax seeking economy as is already the case in some quarters. While a digital economy would help to improve the tax regime and collection rates, it also enhances economic efficiency and ultimately, reduces service cost for citizens.
Pantami told his listeners: “When it comes to digital economy, it is not only about tax but actually it is about encouraging transactions that will cut down cost of services and help to increase our gross domestic product (GDP). This is very important because we want to remove that fear that digital economy is just about tax. When you want to promote digital economy, you always want to encourage operators to cut down price of data, for example. The price of most mobile device must also come down because when the price is down, patronage will be higher.”
