ICT contribution to Nigeria’s GDP to hit 15% – NITDA

Peter Jack, Director General of Nigeria’s National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has said the agency is committed to ensuring ICT contribution to Nigeria’s GDP increases to 15% within 3 years. He said this in Dubai, UAE. Speaking at a media conference, he said ICT currently contributes about 8 per cent to Nigeria’s GDP. He announced that NITDA has a national ICT Strategic plan with a timeline of 2010-2015. He said the implementation of the plan in sectors such as education, agriculture, health, human capital development, governance, judiciary and national security, has propelled the level of development in the ICT sector in Nigeria. He added that the impact of the plan and its implementation will be measured and reviewed by next year. ‘The vision of the national broadband plan is for Nigeria to be one of a society of connected communities with high speed internet and broadband access that facilitates faster socio-economic advancement of the nation and its people,’ he said. ‘The Federal Government is promoting the expansion of cable landing points to other coastal states and to the inter-land. ‘Also, Fibre Optic Backbone infrastructure is now available in all the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory but mostly concentrated in state capitals and a few urban centres. ‘We shall collaborate with all stakeholders including foreign investors to deliver 30 per cent mobile broadband penetration by 2018 and an open access shared infrastructure environment. ‘A high point of the Broadband Plan is the SMART cities initiative. Five pilot states in the federation are in the first phase of the project and have fully committed to ICT infrastructure deployment in their states,’ he said