How FG Will Create Two Million Jobs in Six Months in ICT Sector, by Shittu

How FG Will Create Two Million Jobs in Six Months in ICT Sector, by Shittu

adebayo shittuThe Federal Government targets to create two million jobs in the next six months in the ICT sector. This was disclosed by the minister of Communications, Barrister Adebayo Shittu at a reception in his honour organised by the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria, ATCON.

Speaking at the event the Minister who harped more on the need to explore our technological prowess as a nation said, “Emphasis and global relevance in today’s 21st century world has shifted from nations with few natural resources to nations with developed human resources that can technologically explore, exploit and manage natural resources for the benefit of the nation. The time has come for Nigeria to redefine its economic strength”.

Local content he said is one of the biggest challenges bedevilling the ICT sector; from hardware to software development etc. but according to him, “It is because of this that we want NIGCOMSAT to have enough capacity for keeping data. We want to do this so that we can be in the position to insist that Nigeria institutions must patronise Nigeria satellite companies instead of seeking the services of foreign based satellite companies. The Local Content Development Policy will be implemented to protect indigenous players in the industry. We also want to establish an ICT university in Nigeria; we will transform some of the Digital Bridge Institutes’ campuses to universities because these facilities are currently being underutilised. E-governance is another way the country can localise its services so that we can digitalise our operations within government to boost ICT skills and create more jobs for our people”.

Shittu also noted the fact that our challenge as a nation is to rapidly grow our telecoms industry as a way to emancipate our people economically. The challenge of our leaders he added is to come up with policies that will rapidly create Nigeria’s capacity to compete favourably with other economies, even as the government is ready to support any idea or proposal that will provide jobs for the increasing youth population in the country. “Without a solid telecoms infrastructure the country will not attract the needed local and foreign investments to build our economy. ICT presents copious opportunities for the creation of unprecedented wealth for the nation”.

He however observed with regret that the, “Government is concerned about the high patronage of imported ICT equipment and it is sad to note that the country is losing $2.8 million yearly to imported ICT goods and services”.

The minister however noted that beyond the positives which Nigeria has recorded over the years since the Telecoms revolution, there are spates of consumer related issues that seriously require attention by the telecom service providers which is also of great concern by the government. “Drop calls have been a bane of telecoms consumers across the country and government is not displeased with the charges for unsolicited services imposed on Nigerian subscribers, adding that mobile network operators must as a matter of urgency tackle the issue of spam messages which can put consumers at risk. This is an invasion on the privacy and sensibility of the customer. Operators need to work on these because it is unacceptable”, he said.