Nigeria’s President-elect, Bola Tinubu, has said he would create one million jobs, in the ICT sector alone, within his first 24 months in office. Tinubu, who was declared the winner of the February 25th Presidential election, stated this in his manifesto.
To achieve this, Tinubu said that apart from encouraging Nigerian youths who are currently in tech, he would introduce intervention programmes in the ICT Industry and other critical sectors of the Nigerian economy where the deployment of new technologies can fast-track business growth and diversification.
He added that Investing in the ICT sector and the digital economy will stimulate local industries, enhance competitiveness, increase productivity, and provide millions of Nigerians with new skills and long-term job and wealth-creation opportunities.
Leveraging blockchain technology: While noting that his government would take advantage of recent innovations such as blockchain technology, Tinubu in his ICT agenda said:
- “Blockchain, because of its security and accountability features, has the inherent potential to make daily interactions easier, faster, and more convenient, as well as to create more opportunities to add exciting new jobs and support greater financial inclusion.”
Other tech focus: He said his government would also be focusing on ICT-enabled outsourcing; Innovation and entrepreneurship, e-commerce, and tech manufacturing to create more tech jobs for Nigerians. According to him, those digital products and services have been identified as having the greatest potential to bring new jobs and greater diversification to the economy.
- “ICT-enabled outsourcing offers the broadest opportunity to bring new jobs to Nigeria and productively engage young Nigerians in the evolving digital global economy. In 2021, India earned US$6 billion from the provision of ICT-enabled outsourcing services, employing millions of its citizens in the process. We shall implement policies that will train and build capacity among Nigeria’s large and youthful population to take greater advantage of the opportunities presented by this industry,” he added.
While noting that the start-up ecosystem provides the platforms and infrastructure to enable the take-off of Innovation Driven Enterprises which utilise ICT for the development of a diverse array of products and services for all sectors of the economy, Tinubu said Nigeria’s fintech startups, emerging from this category have become attractive targets for significant domestic and international investment.
- “We will develop and implement innovative policies to support local funding opportunities and access to capital for startups and encourage foreign investors to continue investing in Nigeria. Other drivers of value within the start-up ecosystem such as technology hubs and parks, accelerators, and angel investors will be incentivised to continue the development of a healthy ecosystem,” he said.