NDS’ll Unlock Nigeria’s Digital Economy Potentials -NITDA

In line with the Federal Government’s strategy to diversify the economy for optimum revenue generation, the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), has set up a National Data Strategy (NDS) to unlock Nigeria’s digital economy potential.
The Director General, NITDA, Mallam Abdullahi Inuwa, disclosed this at the formal inauguration of the Technical Working Committee (TWC) and Workshop on the Implementation of the National Data Strategy (NDS) held in Abuja.
Inuwa, who spoke passionately about the untapped potential in digital economy, said it remained a huge contributor to the global economy, as data economy is worth over $3trn as of 2017.
Quoting the world statistical body, Statista, Inuwa said the Digital Economy is worth more than $16trn, revealing that digitally transformed enterprises contributed $13trn to global GDP in 2018 and is projected to contribute $55.3trn this year, which he said is more than 50% of the global GDP.
Inuwa, who stressed the need for Nigeria to focus attention on the sector to harness the untapped potentials for the wellbeing of the economy, explained that the strategy was launched in order to get citizens to be literate about the importance of data, train them about digital skills and social gains, as well as social security.
With the inauguration of the Technical Working Committee for implementation of the NDS, he said Nigeria has not only shown readiness  for digital economy but also to create wealth and prosperity using digital economy.
‘‘When you talk about digital economy, data is the currency. To have this kind of data strategic meeting today means Nigeria is ready for digital economy, ready to create wealth and prosperity using digital economy.
‘‘In this workshop, we look forward to a more projective session and also better projective recommendations that will help regulatory agencies to come up with regulations that will make the data economy better for the country”, the NITDA DG said.