Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Pantami, on Sunday said that the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector has contributed an “unprecedented” 14.07 per cent to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Dr Pantami said in a statement in Abuja and signed by Dr Femi Adeluyi, his Technical Assistant, Information Technology, that he was delighted to hear of the good news of the growth of ICT’s contribution to Nigeria’s GDP in the first quarter (Q1) of 2020.
Noting that the ICT’s contribution was contained in the latest National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) report on Nigeria’s GDP report for Q1 2020 released earlier in the week, Dr Patami stated that “the Report observed that the country’s GDP grew by 1.87 per cent year-on-year in real terms in Q1 2020.
”The non-oil sector contributed 90.50 per cent to the nation’s GDP in Q1 2020 as opposed to the 9.50 per cent contributed to total real GDP by the oil sector. ”It is noteworthy that the ICT sector contributed 14.07 per cent to the total real GDP in Q1 2020, higher than its contribution a year earlier, which was 13.32 per cent and in the preceding quarter, in which it accounted for 13.12 per cent. This contribution is unprecedented.”
Pantami said that the growing contribution of the ICT sector to the GDP was a direct result of the focused and committed implementation of the Federal Government strategic policy direction in including Digital Economy in the mandate of the Ministry, unveiling and implementation of National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy as well as National Broadband Plan, among others.
The Minister noted that the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic had shown how critical the ICT sector was to the growth of the country’s digital economy and by extension, the general economy.
He called on all sectors to take advantage of the government’s new focus on the digital economy to enable and improve their processes through the use of ICT.
“This would enhance the output of all the sectors of the economy and boost Nigeria’s GDP,” he said.