Pantami Assures Nigerians of Attaining 95% Digital Literacy by 2030

Emma Okonji

The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ibrahim Pantami, said in Gombe, recently that Nigeria’s march towards attaining 95 per cent digital literacy in 2030 as contained in the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (2020 – 2030), now looks more promising than ever. 

Pantami, who presided over the graduation of participants at a two-week Digital Job Creation Training for the North-east in Gombe, which was facilitated by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), said: The reason we train citizens is because digital skills are no longer considered a luxury, but necessities required in any business you do. If you want to be successful, you need to have digital skills.’’

According to the Minister, “ICT is not just an independent sector but the key enabler of all other sectors today. It enables opportunities in education, in health, in agriculture, in security, in defence, in manufacturing, in trade, in investment and in industry.” 

He therefore urged the participants to adopt innovation-driven enterprises and to utilize the training they have received to improve their economic status and make Nigeria a better place.

“We have to utilise ICT in order to make our country a better place. We must use ICT even for our personal economic benefits amongst others. Therefore, we want to encourage you not to waste your times online but rather to use the knowledge you have acquired to make Nigeria a better place and at the same time,  derive many economic benefits from it,” he said.

The Minister who cited the recent reports of the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, about the performance of each sector of the economy, which indicated an unprecedented ICT’s contribution of 18.44% to the economy, described the reports as very heart-warming about the prospects of the industry meeting with the expectations of the relevant policies.