“Nigeria accounts for 82% of the African ICT market.”

•Danbatta encourages youth to acquire digital skills

Nigeria currently accounts for 82% of the African information and communication technology (ICT) market. This was announced by the Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof. Umar Danbatta, during the 10th and 11th combined convocation lectures at Fountain University, Osogbo, Osun State.

Danbatta, who delivered the convocation lecture, said that the adoption and use of ICT is tantamount to empowerment as it effectively transforms processes, enabling operations in every sector of the economy, including trade, agriculture, health, security and governance.

In an article titled: “Empowering Nigerian Youth through ICT,” Danbatta recalled the impact of the ICT revolution on all aspects of human activities across countries and continents, stressing that technology will continue to permeate and support qualitative and measurable changes in all aspects life”.

On all continents of the world, people, organizations and countries continue to witness the rapid development of economic, social and political activities thanks to ICT tools, which, according to Danbatta, have combined computing, information and communication technologies, catalyzing development in ways and ways that people have not dreamed of in decades. years ago.

According to Danbatta, Uber, the largest taxi company in the world, does not own any vehicle; Airbnb, the world’s largest accommodation provider, does not own the property; Facebook, the world’s most popular digital social media platform, creates little or no content; Alibaba, the world’s leading retailer, has little or no inventory, yet they have become beacons of prosperity based solely on ICT resources.

For Danbatta, a few decades ago, it would have been an unfulfilled prophecy for someone to say that a company without a vehicle would control more than 75 million active professional drivers in at least 80 countries only through an app. It would also be disputed that the company would provide accommodation to millions of travelers and tourists in over 100,000 cities around the world using a regular app.

Likewise, just as Alibaba without inventory had over 828 million annual active customers in its Chinese retail markets, as of June 2021, it goes without saying that Facebook’s equivalent content inventory is actually generated by Facebook’s 2.89 billion active users monthly.

The NCC Chief stated that the above contextual demonstrations of ICT capabilities explain the policy decisions of the Federal Government to strengthen the use of ICT in building a robust digital economy in Nigeria, eloquently articulated in the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS), 2020-2030; The Nigerian National Broadband Plan (NNBP) 2020-2025 and other series of NDEPS and NNBP derivative policies, guidelines and regulations.

He explained that the government’s embrace of the digital revolution is creating a multiplier effect in key sectors, helping in job creation, better governance, youth empowerment and overall socio-economic development. “This is the reason why this objective reality is called the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR).

Indeed, for over 10 years, ICT has consistently contributed over 10 percent of Nigeria’s gross domestic product (GDP) – the telecommunications sector alone contributed 12.45 percent of GDP in the fourth quarter of 2020,” he stated.

“Given that Nigeria accounts for 82 percent of the African ICT market and 29 percent of continental Internet usage, and that Sub-Saharan Africa is the fastest growing region for ICT adoption, the Federal Government, in its determination to ensure that the nation realizes the full benefits of ICT, established a broadband vision that sees Nigeria as a society of connected communities providing high-speed broadband access and connectivity,” he said.

The EVC said the envisioned society will have internet connectivity of 10 megabits per second (Mbps) in rural areas and 25 Mbps in urban areas by 2025. He further stated that effective coverage would be available to at least 90 percent of the population by 2025 at a cost of not more than N390 per gigabyte of data.

Danbatta, therefore, appealed to Nigerian youths to take advantage of the Federal Government’s policies, which have found expression in many of the Commission’s activities aimed at Nigerian youths.

Earlier, in his welcome speech, the Vice-Rector of the University, Prof. Olalekan Sanni, defined by prof. Danbatta as an accomplished scientist and administrator whose wealth of experience was deemed worthy of use by the university community to propose solutions to the problem of youth empowerment and suggest ways to improve the socio-economic life of Nigeria through the effective use of ICT.