The Minister of Communication, Adebayo Shittu, says in view of the dwindling oil prices, information and communications technology is the best way to drive the diversification of the nation’s economy.
Shittu said the time had come for Nigeria to redefine its economic strength through the ICT development.
The minister spoke when he visited the Information Technology Development Entrepreneurship Accelerator Hub and the Co-Creation Hub in Yaba, Lagos.
Shittu said the Federal Government would emulate countries such as India, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the United States which have established special interventions to support their ICT industries.
In his remarks, the Chief Executive Officer of Co-Creation Hub, Olatubosun Tijani, urged the Federal Government to create the enabling environment for young entrepreneurs and address the challenges of infrastructure.
To this end, the minister said that later in the year, the Federal Government would create an ICT Innovation Fund to cater for start-ups and to provide equity investment for innovative ICT start-ups and entrepreneurs.
Other plan, according to the minister, is the creation of an
ICT Incubation Scheme to support the establishment of additional incubators and accelerators across the country.
He said, “With these interventions in place, we firmly believe that the sector will witness tremendous growth, generate employment and create massive wealth for our people.
“Today, as the price of crude oil daily nosedives in the International market, the time has come for Nigeria to redefine its economic strength by not relying on crude oil sales and by diversifying the productive base of minerals, entertainment, textiles.”
“This diversification can only be best driven today by the ICT. ICT offers Nigeria the best hope of employment generation for the youth. It offers the best hope of increasing the productivity of our national work force. It also offers the best hope of activating positive revolution in promising sectors such as agriculture and solid minerals.