The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Pantami stated that Nigeria can become an exporting nation if the country can leverage on the innovations of her youths and indigenous entrepreneurship.
The Minister made this statement at the stakeholders’ Review Workshop on National Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship Policy, tagged “Developing an Enabling Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship” in Abuja today.
Dr. Pantami maintained that the responsibility of the ministry is to work on policies that will remove the obstacles and the barriers to the development of the country, adding that the National Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship Policy is aimed at providing an enabling environment for indigenous innovations to thrive.
The Minister noted that from his engagement at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Boston, he realized that a nation’s digital economy success relies on two elements – indigenous digital innovation and indigenous entrepreneurship.
What they are saying
Dr. Pantami, speaking about the National Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship Policy said:
“We want to engage our start-ups, ICT hubs all over the country, identify their major challenges and see how government can provide an enabling environment for them to be very successful and that is the idea behind this policy.
“These are the two elements that will make the country a producing nation instead of a consuming nation. It is because of this, I feel this is the right time to work on the National Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship policy.”
Director-General of National Information Technology Development Agency, (NITDA) Mallam Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, said :
“We have seen an IDE (Jumia) that created more than 5,000 direct jobs and grew to more than 1B USD valuation within three years. Boston Consulting Group projected that by 2025, Jumia and other potential unicorn companies could create more than three million jobs in Africa.
“In line with this, the objective of the policy produced is to help institutionalized digital entrepreneurship in our country in line with President Muhammadu Buhari’s economic diversification agenda.”