The Minister of Communications, Barr Adebayo Shittu has taken his campaign for the takeoff of Nigeria’s ICT University and ICT Development Bank to Indian technology experts who gathered in Lagos on Wednesday, encouraging to partner with Nigeria to deepen the standard of the institution.
In his opening remarks at the two-day Indo-Africa ICT Expo 2017 which ends today in Lagos, Shittu noted that “the Ministry in pursuance of its mandate of leveraging ICT in its entire ramifications and in order to promote local manpower of the ICT sector, is establishing a proposed ICT University of Nigeria with specialized programme on ICT across the six geopolitical zones in the country”.
“The Ministry has reached out to a number of ICT companies locally and internationally for the PPP management of the proposed ICT University. Many have and still counting who have expressed enthusiasm towards investing in the project.
“The Ministry is also thinking of promoting the establishment of an ICT Development Bank to assist in providing the needed funding for the ICT industry instead of depending on commercial banks which charges high interest rate.
Continuing, he recalled that the Ministry has reached an advance stage for the establishment of a befitting ICT Park and Exhibition center in Abuja.
Giving more insights on why Nigeria is pursuing ICt development seriously, the Minister rolled out statistics showing the relevance.
According to him, “We have over 145 million mobile subscribers, representing a penetration of 85.5% while Internet penetration rate stands at about 70%. More undersea fiber optic cables are landing and increasing our international connectivity to other region, resulting in better, reliable and fairly affordable Broadband connectivity”.
“These achievements are attributable to partnerships and collaboration between the public, the private sector and international stakeholders.
“Nigeria is the fastest growing ICT markets in Africa and in the worldwide. This is attributable to the improving conducive business environment and younger and more affluent population – all of which are strong indicators of not only a source of capital, but of job creation, skills development, technology transfer, infrastructure development, responsible governance and sustained growth with long-term diversification and transformation of Africa economies,” the minister averred.
