By Odimmegwa Johnpeter/Abuja
The Minister of Communications, Dr. Abdur-raheem Adebayo Shittu has said
that upon assumption of office, the Ministry of Communications set to
develop the National ICT Roadmap to guide operations and development of
the ICT Sector in Nigeria. The Minister stated this during his Valedictory
Press Conference in Abuja. According to Dr. Shittu, the National ICT
Roadmap sets out the intent and commitment of the Government to continue
the development of the ICT Sector and to implement the sector policies and
plans in an integrated, focused and innovative manner that aligns with the
change mantra of the current administration. According to the Minister, over
the past four years, broad-based sectorial development was achieved
through focus on five pillars:- sector wide strategy; policy & reforms; IT
penetration; E-governance; and Human Capital.
The Minister further noted that the Ministry has deployed various policy
interventions to drive sector growth, achieve the goal of becoming a major
driver of the Nigeria economy. These include: mandatory ICT Education at
the primary level and alignment of the ICT education curriculum to meet
current global trends; establishment of ICT Park, the establishment of ICT
hubs and learning centres across the six geopolitical zones of the country;
creating a sustainable funding framework for the implementation of the e-
government Master plan and other ICT initiatives of government,
implementing the National Assembly Policy to promote National Security and
support e-commerce; incentivizing users to migrate from lower to higher
technology to provide ICT utilization and exploitation across sectors;
accelerating the passage of the Nigeria Postal Commission Bill to optimize the
capacity of NIPOST to be relevant for improved service delivery and bridge
the digital divide towards inclusive development, enforcing implementation of
the local content guidelines to ensure patronage of indigenous products and
services including patronage of NIGCOMSAT by government and local
investors on human capital development, the ministry according to Shittu has
trained over 200 on Youth Empowerment Training in Web Technology and
Open Source Software, sustainable ICT intervention across the country, inauguration of the Digital Literacy Council, Training of 200 youths with
disabilities, NITDA has trained fifty youths were trained under the
programme; development of an indigenous I.T. Platform, NITDA has
sponsored M.Sc. and PhD students from across the country, create
awareness and Cyber Drills under the guidance of the Minister of
Communications the ministry has enjoyed broad-based growth during the
period of the administration: accelerated growth of information and
communication GDP from 6% in 2015 to 12% in 2018, the total foreign
direct investments to the Telecommunications and Information Technology
sectors is $1.73 billion, internet penetration increases from 45% in 2015 to
53% in 2019, March 2019 broadband penetration rate is 33%, telephony
subscribers increased from 151million in 2015 to 173 million in 2018, while
teledensity increases from 108% in 2015 to 123% in 2018 and mobile
penetration rate increases from 83% in 2015 to 84% in 2018.