The minister of Communications Technology, Mrs. Omobolaji Johnson has said that states in the country could grow their economy faster, if they tap into the many possibilities that Information Communications Technology offer that youths in the country have imbibed already.
According to her, the massive investment that ICT has brought into the country as well as the landing of four submarine cables in Lagos by 2014 would increase the current level of broadband internet access.
The minister who dropped the hit at the Ogun State Business Forum in Abeokuta said that Nigeria has a tremendous advantage to grow its economy through ICT due to its large population made up mostly of young entrepreneurial people saying that it would be a terrifying if the states do not harness the great opportunity that the growing number of the young population offers the nation.
She said that the Federal Government has taken the lead in that direction by creating ICT incubation centres across the country, charging the states to take advantage of the innovative mind of the youths, their energy and capacity for learning to growing their economy through ICT
Johnson explained that in the United Nations entrepreneur competition that the President Goodluck Jonathan and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonji-Iweala are championing, the 1200 winners ICT based business are 11 per cent of them are in ICT, and second to agriculture.
That according to the minister is an indication that more young people are starting businesses in ICT saying that governments have great opportunity to create jobs in the ICT sectors for youths in the country.
She stressed that taking the software industry as an example, there are several ways that governments in the country could assist in job creation adding that states could also begin to export software skills of its young people.
She disclosed states in the country like Ogun have the capacity to develop a vibrant software industry due to the presence of high institutions of learning that can offer research opportunity.
She also said that the growing numbers of private university in the country with research capacity is an advantage for the states in the country to tap into ICT to grow their individual economies.
While noting the need of ICT as a tool of increasing development in the across the country, she said that the vast advantage that ICT has on health, education and agriculture development of the several states cannot be underestimated.
For instance she said that one of the easiest means of reaching the huge population the in the rural areas of the country with health services is through tele-medicine, which is driven via ICT infrastructure.
She further said that there is also a tremendous opportunity for social and educational development using ICT saying that for every 10 per cent increase in mobile penetration in a state, the GDP is increase by .08 per cent and for every 10 per cent broadband increase there is a 1.6 per cent GDP increase
No comments:
Post a Comment