Nigeria Records $32bn on Foreign Investment in ICT

• Osinbajo harps on skills acquisition

Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has said the country recorded over $32 billion in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) over the last 15 years as a result of revolution in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector.

Osinbajo spoke yesterday in Abuja at the opening  of a one-day conference with the theme; “Africa-China Cooperation in ICT and Digital Economy” organised by the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs in collaboration with the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Nigeria and Huawei Technologies Company (Nigeria) Limited.

He said such investments inflow came in form of infrastructural development that has created an ICT backbone that powers various critical sectors of the economy such as banking, e-commerce, insurance, and oil and gas.

Osinbajo said there was the need to leverage more on ICT skills to achieve industrial revolution through emphasis on digital economy.
He added that improving on skills and refocusing the country’s priorities would help to reap more benefits from the ICT sector.

Osinbajo, who was represented by his Special Adviser on ICT, Mr. Lanre Osibona, stated that there is an urgent need to overcome challenges facing the country to leveraging ICT to fuel the fourth industrial revolution that brings about digital economy.
“Africa must develop its skills. We must know how to scale workforce and move away from business base outsourcing to knowledge base outsourcing. Data is the future and new hope. For us as a country we must invest heavily in capturing data,” he said.

In his remarks, the Minister of Communication, Adebayo Shittu, restated that Nigeria’s revolution in the ICT sector accounts for well over $32 billion in foreign direct investment over the last 15 years.
He advocated the need for all stakeholders to strengthen the technology and innovation ecosystem by supporting the development of innovation hubs in partnership with the private sector.

“This conference provides the opportunity to jump start the critical game-changing steps needed to make Nigeria’s objectives a reality in digital economy. Beyond this conference, we must work to strengthen relationships and knowledge management platforms towards building the better and more digital future that we seek”, Shittu said.

 Also speaking at the conference, the Ambassador of China to Nigeria, Dr. Zhon Pingjian, said  China would continue to share its development opportunities with African countries and that Nigeria is “welcome on board the train of China’s development”.
Also speaking at the event, Managing Director of Huawei Technologies Nigeria, Tank Li,  said a robust ICT infrastructure was the bedrock for digital transformation in Nigeria, adding that in order to unleash digital economy potential in the country, issues of availability and affordability need to be addressed.

 “In order to foster digital transformation of the economy, policies and programs to increase ICT infrastructure and ensure wide-spread coverage both in urban and rural areas should be prioritised to make voice and data services available,” he said.

Tank Li said strategic measures of infrastructure sharing, investment-friendly regulatory framework and preferential taxation policies were needed to reduce sites acquisition and broadband deployment costs in order to bring down the cost for users to really encourage application of ICT across the industries and the whole society.
The conference called for a framework and policies from the government that will foster broadband Infrastructure development in Nigeria to help stimulate GDP growth. Also a need to continue to collaborate with private sector and foreign investors that help to drive innovation for scaling ICT in Nigeria was emphasised.