‘Nigeria Has Potential to Compete in Global ICT Development’

By Emma Okonji

The new Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, Mr. Festus Yusuf Daudu, has said Nigeria has the potential to compete with developed countries of the world like the United States of America, United Kingdom, and Russia in the area of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector based on available human resources in the country.

He said this during the official handing over ceremony between him and the former Permanent Secretary, Mr. Musa Istifanus, which took place during the weekend at the Ministry’s headquarters in Abuja.

According to Daudu, “Nigeria has passed the stage of comparison in the area of ICT with other developing countries within and outside the region. Nigeria should be competing with the likes of the United States of America, United Kingdom, and Russia.”

He said the renaming of the Ministry as Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy was designed to be in line with global development, noting that Nigeria cannot be left behind in the ICT world.” “The world is moving forward, we need to move with the globe,” Daudu said.

He requested for maximum cooperation from the management staff of the ministry and urged them to work as a team in order to achieve the mandate of the ministry for digital Nigeria.

According to him, “A tree cannot make a forest. You need a collection of trees to produce a forest and I believe that all of you seated here are a collection of diverse human resources require to make the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy achieve its mandate.”

He noted that finances were the most difficult challenges in the system and urged the staff to maximise the little available in order to achieve the ministry’s numerous policies and programmes for digital Nigeria.

The former Permanent Secretary, thanked the management and staff of the ministry for their cooperation and support in the implementation of the policies and programmes of the ministry.

He said the new challenges before him now would be how to use the experience he acquired in the ICT sector and collaborate with his counterpart in the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy to promote surveillance technology that would enhance the efficiency of Nigeria troops in cubing the issues of kidnapping, banditry, and terrorism in the country.