Omobola Johnson says that Nigeria’s ICT Sector Attracts 30 Billion Dollars

Nigeria’s ICT sector has been able to attract about 30 billion US dollars, communication minister Omobola Johnson told CNBC Africa.  Johnson noted that the huge investments were a result of privatization and transparency in the sector.  Johnson noted, “Technology is a very important part of innovation as it brings new ways of doing old things and new ways of doing new things.”

Johnson also said, “We have seen some tremendous examples of innovation in Africa with Kenya being always used as an example however, we have seen innovation coming out of Nigeria as well. We are building the infrastructure that will enable us to become the continent’s ICT hub and we are also building the talent and content applications we can export locally and regionally.”

Furthermore, she stated, “We have a vision as a ministry to make the country’s ICT sector the hub for the African continent, we believe it is feasible because we think we have an available pool of talent for the ICT which we are going to up skill.”  ICTs are largely viewed as a boost for employment generation for young people at the same time addressing social and economic problems Africa is facing today.

Johnson posited that her country had also a competitive advantage as it was an English speaking country which gives the country large outsourcing capabilities.  The country’s communication technology sector managed to establish an ICT fund manager that has raised 7.5 million US dollars to date.

However, Johnson says the country has not reached its target which is 15 million US dollars but she says the target will be reached in three months’ time.  She concluded, “We have a national broadband plan we are executing. We are looking at moving from six percent penetration to 30 percent penetration by 2017 and we are moving all the bottlenecks and constrains to make sure we achieve this target.”

Source: CNBC Africa