NITDA: Nigeria Experiencing Significant Changes Due to Growth of Digital Economy

Hammed Shittu in Ilorin 

The Director General of National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Mallam Inuwa Abdullahi has said that, there is no longer any doubt that Nigeria is rapidly changing and most significant changes now is the growth of digital economy.

Abdullahi stated this in his key note address at the 2023 Digital Economy Sensitisation Lecture Series organised by Kwara State University’s Centre for Digital Economy with the theme, “Digital Economy: The Triple Helix Model of Government, People and Institutions, ” in Ilorin, Kwara state capital

He explained that,”The Digital Economy is transforming the way we live, work and interact with each other. It is creating new opportunities for businesses, governments, people and institutions to collaborate and innovate.

He said, “The Digital Economy is driven by advances in technology such as the internet, mobile devices, and cloud computing. These technologies are making it possible for businesses to reach new markets and customers, and for individuals to access information, goods and services from anywhere in the world. Therefore, in order for us to fully reap the potential benefits of the Digital Economy, we have to aggregate our resources together as government, people and institutions.”

He also said, “The triple helix model is an interaction among these three for the purpose of fostering the economic transformation of various sectors of the economy. In this case, our Ivory Towers are the main source of impacting knowledge, research and intellectual discussions.”

He further explained that the people and industries being the principal vehicle of commercialization while the government retains its crucial regulatory role.

In his address, the acting  vice chancellor of the university, Professor Luqman Jimoh said that, it was high time stakeholders in the nation’s economy  key into the dynamics of current Digital world by making the effective use of the available social media applications as applicable in the developing and even developed countries.

He also tasked the government, the people and institutions to queue into the digital world operations so as to advance the socio economic growth of the nation.

The Vice-chancellor said, “We now live in a world where we do not need to physically meet or even go to places. There are many options to employ to communicate, teach and transact businesses, among others. Phone calls, text messages, teleconferencing platforms like Zoom, Teams and Skpye among other messaging platforms such as WhatsApp (which is the most common in this part of the world), Facetime, Telegram and many others have emerged to revolutionise how things are done.”

He also said that the initiative is one other way Kwara State University is contributing to the growth of her immediate and extended environment, by bringing together key players in the digital economy world to sensitise participants of the diverse ways the digital economy can be jointly harnessed by the government, the people and the institutions to drive the economy and improve the general quality of life of the people.

He noted that in the history of the world, digital technologies have advanced more rapidly than any other innovation, so much so that the world has transformed into a digital world,” where everyone; governments, organisations and individuals, have become dependent on some form of digital support however simple. The world has become increasingly interconnected.”