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Nigeria Records GDP Upsurge In ICT Amidst COVID-19 Pandemic

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Ali Pantami

The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Pantami, has expressed delight over the growth of ICT’s contribution to the nation’s GDP in the first quarter of 2020 (Q1 2020).

The minister in a statement signed by Dr Femi Adeluyi, Technical Assistant (Information Technology), quoted the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) release on Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product Report’ for Q1 2020 on the 25th of May, 2020.

The Report observed that the country’s GDP grew by 1.87% (year-on-year) in real terms in Q1 2020. The non-oil sector contributed 90.50% to the nation’s GDP in Q1 2020 as opposed to the 9.50% contributed to total real GDP by the oil sector. It is noteworthy that the ICT sector contributed 14.07% to the total real GDP in Q1 2020, higher than its contribution a year earlier (13.32%) and in the preceding quarter, in which it accounted for 13.12%.

The Minister noting the unprecedented contribution of ICT, said growing contribution of the ICT sector to the GDP is a direct result of the focused and committed effort of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.

He also said the strategic policy directions of the Federal Government in the inclusion of Digital Economy in the mandate of the Ministry, the unveiling and implementation of the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy and the National Broadband Plan, amongst others all led to the attainment of the feat.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has shown how critical the ICT sector is to the growth of our country’s digital economy and, by extension, the general economy,” he added.

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The Minister called on all sectors of the economy to take advantage of the Federal Government’s new focus on digital economy to enable them improve their processes through the use of ICTs to further enhance the output of all the sectors of the economy and boost the country’s GDP.

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