Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Pantami, has expressed satisfaction with the latest statistics released by the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS), which shows ICT has contributed 14.07 per cent to the country’s Gross Domestic Product in the first quarter of 2020.
The minister, in a statement at the weekend by his Technical Assistant in charge of Information Technology, Dr. Femi Adeniyi, said: “The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Pantami, is delighted to hear of the growth of ICT’s contribution to Nigeria’s GDP in the first quarter of 2020 (Q1 2020). The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product Report for Q1 2020 on May 25, 2020.
“The report observed that the country’s GDP grew by 1.87 per cent (year-on-year) in real terms in Q1 2020. The non-oil sector contributed 90.50 per cent to the nation’s GDP in Q1 2020 as opposed to the 9.50 per cent contributed to the total real GDP by the oil sector.
“It is noteworthy that the ICT sector contributed 14.07 per cent to the total real GDP in Q1 2020, higher than its contribution a year earlier (13.32 per cent) and in the preceding quarter, in which it accounted for 13.12 per cent. This contribution is unprecedented,” the statement said.
The minister noted that the growing contribution of the ICT sector to the GDP is a direct result of the focused and committed effort of the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.
He added that the strategic policy directions of the federal government include the inclusion of the digital economy in the mandate of the ministry, the unveiling and implementation of the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy and the National Broadband Plan, amongst others.
According to him, “the COVID-19 pandemic has shown how critical the ICT sector is to the growth of our country’s digital economy and by extension, the general economy.”
The minister called on all sectors to take advantage of the federal government’s new focus on the digital economy to enable and improve their processes through the use of ICTs, saying that it would enhance the output of all the sectors of the economy and boost Nigeria’s GDP.