Minister Harps On ICT Investment

The Minister of Information and Communication Technology, Mrs Mabolaji Johnson has appealed to stakeholders to increase their commitments by investing more on Information and Communication technology (ICT).

Mrs Johnson made the appeal recently in Lagos during meeting with ICT editors of major newspapers and magazines in the country. The ICT boss said the Ministry was created after years of canvassing by major stakeholders for a supervising ministry to co-ordinate, facilitate and drive the development of ICT sector.

She said that ICT plays an important role not only in national development but in national competitiveness and of course the creation of much jobs especially for our younger generation.

According to her, Nigeria has tremendous success in the telecoms sector as a result of the liberalisation of the sector.

The minister noted that Nigeria have one of the fastest growing telecoms markets in the world as well as the largest mobile subscriber base in sub-Saharan Africa.

She explained that the ICT sector for a variety of reasons, has not been successful.

Despite the success of the telecoms industry, she said the ICT sector accounted for only 3.5 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), compared with the low percent for South Africa.

Meanwhile, she has called on the staff of the Ministry to be up and doing in order to move the newly created Ministry forward.

Emmanuella Azubuike and Marylin Ekwueme