The\u00a0 United Kingdom government via the Foreign Commonwealth Development OrganIsation (FCDO), and the Policy Innovation Centre (PIC) of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group, are driving the digital access project implementation in Nigeria.
\nPIC and its UK partner held a workshop that brought together stakeholders in the public and private sectors to drive digital transformation in Nigeria, in Abuja recently.
\nThe Tide\u2019s source\u00a0 reports that in 2019, the Federal Government launched the Nigerian Digital Economy Policy and Strategy to drive the implementation of the digital economy.
\nThe Deputy Director at the centre, Dr. Osasuyo Dirisu, in an interview with the press, on the sideline of the event\u00a0 recently,\u00a0 said their intention was to drive inclusive and sustainable digital transformation in Nigeria.
\nDirisu, represented by the PIC\u2019s Senior Policy Specialist,\u00a0 MR. Mayokun Adeiran, said the gap in digital divide was overwhelming.
\nAccording to him, to achieve digital transformation in Nigeria by 2030, public and private stakeholders must come together.
\n\u201cGovernment cannot do it alone, there has to be this collaboration because the sector that drives the economy is the private sector,\u201d he\u00a0 said.
\nChris Abhulimen, Government Sector Specialist for the PIC and FCDO project in Nigeria said in the majority of civilised climes, it is the private sector that takes the lead in creating innovation and projects that drive the digital economy.
\n\u201cNigeria not wanting to be left out, this project now seeks to strengthen the capacity of the stakeholders in the digital economy to be able to drive the implementation plan of 2020 to 2030.
\n\u201cThe FCDO and PIC will build sustainability in the digital economy by empowering the private sector ecosystem and stakeholders.
\n\u201cThis allows them to be able to take the initiative to aid and engage the government through favourable policies.
\n\u201cThese policies will unlock opportunities out of the digital economy and also create opportunities for Nigerian Start-Ups to be able to thrive and create innovation that would create more opportunities,\u2019\u2019\u00a0 he said.
\nHe emphasised that the private sector needed to take ownership of the project as the government alone cannot digitally transform the society.
\nAccording to Abhulimen, the true measure of success in a digital economy would be that the government would be fully digitally transformed which would facilitate numerous services offered by the government.
\nHe explained that Nigerians would also be able to participate in a digital economy by leveraging on digital policies and services launched by the government for consumption of various products and services.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe true measure of a digital economy is in the companies that are unicorns, which have been created out of these opportunities.
\n\u201cWhen I mentioned unicorn, which means a billion dollar company and currently Nigeria is not doing so bad, imagine the country having five unicorns, five billion dollar companies already without effort from the government.
\n\u201cImagine what would happen if the public and private sector come together and create the enabling environment for innovation to thrive,\u2019\u2019 he said.
\nOswald Osaretin, Senior Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on Digital Transformation and the Nigerian Start-Up Bill (NSB)Lead,\u00a0 said the bill was waiting for the president\u2019s assent.
\nRepresented by Tracy Okoro, the NSB State ADOPTION Lead, Osaretin said, \u201cthe Start-Up Bill is a set of regulations and legislations that have been put together to create an enabling environment and a thriving economy for tech enabled companies.
\n\u201cThis is because the president decided that young people are the largest assets of the economy and it is important to harness these potentials and use them to develop the country,\u2019\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The\u00a0 United Kingdom government via the Foreign Commonwealth Development OrganIsation (FCDO), and the Policy Innovation Centre (PIC) of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group, are driving the digital access project implementation in Nigeria. PIC and its UK partner held a workshop that brought together stakeholders in the public and private sectors to drive digital transformation in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-305562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-icttelecom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=305562"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305562\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":305571,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305562\/revisions\/305571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=305562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=305562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=305562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}