Nigerian government has called for increased collaboration for the development of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) ecosystem in West Africa as a potential digital hub on the global ICT map.
Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami and the Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta made the call at a two-day 18th Annual General Meeting of the West Africa Telecommunications Regulators Assembly (WATRA) which beganin Abuja yesterday.
Addressing WATRA representatives, Pantami said the time had come for African countries to come up with innovative ideas to fast track the development of the ICT ecosystem in the sub-region, saying Nigeria as the largest ICT market in West Africa and most populous African country, had taken policy and regulatory initiatives in making ICT/telecoms a major contributor to its economic growth.
Citing a report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the Minister said ICT/telecoms had become a major contributor to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) far higher than what oil and gas, agriculture, construction and other major sectors contributed to the economy.
Pantami, however, acknowledged NCC’s role in spearheading implementation of critical ICT policies, such as the Nigerian National Broadband Plan (NNBP), 2020-2025 and the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS) for a Digital Nigeria 2020-2030 project.
While commending NCC’s leading role as Nigeria’s representative in WATRA, the Minister emphasized the readiness of Nigeria to continue to share ideas with other member-states of WATRA and support the Assembly for the overall goal of collectively developing the ICT ecosystem in the sub-region.
Corroborating the Minister, Danbatta stressed the need for all member states to “come together and see our differences as strengths because at the end of the day, we all want to have a safe and thriving society devoid of poverty and strife.”
He said while the Nigerian government, as a member of WATRA, envisions societies with necessary infrastructure and services that will ensure prosperity for all our people, ICT is key to this vision, adding that “WATRA is the best platform to pool together our huge natural and Human Resources to achieve exponential ICT growth which will in turn drive our economies”.
Chairman, WATRA Exco, Charles Tontoma Milogo of Burkina Faso, commended the leadership role of NCC, especially in equipping the Assembly headquarters in Abuja. He added that this has ensured smooth running of the daily operations of WATRA as the key regional ICT body.
