By Adeola Tukuru Abuja
Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment Dr. Okechukwu Enelamah, has revealed that fi nancial services within Nigeria’s digital economy could add US$88 billion and create over 3 million new jobs over the next 10 years. Th e Minister who led the Nigerian delegation to Geneva recently , explained that the job fi gures are in line with estimates of a study carried out by McKinsey Global Institute (MGI),adding that potential gains of the digital economy will be manifest in digital accounts, payments, mobile money, health and educational services and other sectors of the economy. According to him, the ministry is already developing the “Smart Nigeria Digital Economy Project” and that the objective is to solve effi ciency problems and create leapfrog opportunities in the economy, improve competitiveness and foster technology development and innovation more generally.
In a press statement issued yesterday in Abuja,the Strategy and Communications Adviser to the Minister, Constance Ikokwu, the minister said ” Th e Smart Nigeria Digital Economy Project is Nigeria’s response to an area of intense economic and technological activity by Nigerian youths, where there is a growing pool of talent, he stated. “It is a sector of the economy where the private sector already has ownership.
Th e role of government would therefore be to ensure a sound pro-competitive regulatory environment and hardware infrastructure to foster rapid growth of this area,” Th e Minister also noted that there are currently 150 million active mobile users in a country of 170m, of which over 60% are connected to the internet. “Th ere are some 17m Facebook users and new technology start ups and young people writing apps that solve problems and spur growth. ”
Lagos, the largest commercial city in Africa accommodates some of Africa’s well-known consumer tech businesses such as iRokotv, Hotels.ng, Jobberman, Andela, Balogunmarket, and Truppr.com. Th is comes as Ministers from developing countries namely Nigeria, Mexico, Kenya, Argentina, Colombia, Sri Lanka, Uruguay, Chile, Costa Rica and Pakistan under the auspices of Friends of E-commerce for Development (FED) resolved to put forward a policy agenda to bridge the digital divide as well as provide development solutions in the long term, during their meeting in Geneva, Switzerland today In a communiqué at the end of their meeting, the group said that the road map put together by member countries would form the foundation for sustainable economic development as well as pave the way for conversations at UNCTAD and the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in advance of the Ministerial Meeting of the WTO in Argentina later this year
