Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof Umar Danbatta, has revealed that the telecommunication sector has contributed N500 billion to the national Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the last 10 years.
Danbatta disclosed this when he received members of Association of Licenced Telecom Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), led by its chairman, Mr Gbenga Adebayo, who paid him a courtesy call at the commission’s headquarters in Abuja.
According to him, apart from oil and gas, no other sector has been able to contribute to the Nigerian economy as much as the telecoms sector which has also provided over 2.5 million direct and indirect period in the last 10 years.
He said, “We are in no doubt about what impact the telecom sector can make to the economy of the country. It has created 2.5 million direct and indirect jobs in the last 10 years, no other sector has done that except may be the oil and gas. No sector except the oil and gas has succeeded in contributing N500 billion to the Federation Account in the last 10 years. No sector has contributed 10 per cent to the GDP except for the oil and gas. In 2014 alone, the investment in the sector hit $10 billion. So the telecoms sector has contributed more than any other sector to the economy.”
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