The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Professor Isa Pantami has said that the Digital Economy sector created 2.2 million jobs in Nigeria between Q1 2020 and Q3 2022.
This is just as the Minister said that there is no plan to strip the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) of its powers.
Speaking at the 19th Edition of the President Muhammadu Buhari Scorecard Series, the Minister said that based on the National Broadband Plan, Nigeria was to have 90% broadband coverage by December 2025, but it recently gave a license to Starlink to provide services and this has given the country 100 per cent coverage, about 3 years ahead of schedule.
“5G has been deployed in Nigeria and it will support our security institutions because it’s anchored on real-time communication to
conduct security operations without necessarily endangering the lives of our security personnel physically.
“Adopting 5G technologies and rolling out 5G networks will support in the development of Nigeria’s digital economy.
“On the 20th of December, President Muhammadu Buhari commissioned the National Shared Services Centre (NSSC).
“The Centre is a one-stop-shop for Ministries, Departments and Agencies to interface with the citizens in a way that is swift, secure and seamless. The Centre houses a Data Centre, Cybersecurity Operations Centre, Network Centre, Call Centre and will provide office space, among others.
“A National Policy on Virtual Engagements for Federal Public Institutions was unveiled on the 14th of October 2020. The Policy enabled us to formalize government online meetings.
“As such, statutory meetings like the Federal Executive Council meetings, Council of State meetings and other meetings can now take place online, effectively and legally.
“We conducted 108 virtually FEC meetings and none of them was compromised by cybercriminals, despite many attempts by hackers.
We created 2.2 million jobs in Nigeria within the Digital Economy sector”, he stated.
Speaking on the alleged plot to strip NCC its powers through the amendment of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) Act, Pantami said there was no iota of truth in insinuations that.
He explained that both the NCC Act 2003 and NITDA Act 2007 were obsolete and long overdue for review due to imperatives of new technologies, as old Acts did not address the fouth industrial revolution and emerging technologies.
“We are talking about Fouth Generation (4G) Technology and Fifth Generation (5G) Technology today as well as digital economy, but the NITDA Act was specifically on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector, while the NCC Act dwell more on telecommunications.
“I had a meeting with the Executive Vice Chairman of NCC and the Director General of NITDA at the beginning, and I directed them to work together. And there was an agreement that both Acts needed to be amended.
“NITDA had over 30 stakeholders engagements and I am sure NCC were involved and they had their own as well. It is unfair that someone would say because I was once Director General of NITDA and therefore tilted towards NITDA.
“I protected NCC recently when an Agency took 42 billion naira belonging to it. The higher authority asked the Agency to return the money to the NCC.
“I stood my ground for NIPOST over stamp duty issues and my life was threatened by the late Boko Haram leader when we insisted on the implementation of the linkage of the Subscribers Identity Modules (SIM) with the National Identity Numbers (NIN)”, Pantami stated.
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