Nigeria Needs Indigenous Entrepreneurship To Boost Economy- Pantami

Nigeria needs to focus on National Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship policy to boost local production, the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Pantami said.

Pantami said this on Friday during the stakeholders’ Review Workshop on National Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship Policy, with the theme, ‘Developing an Enabling Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship.’

The Communication Minister said based on his engagement at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, he realized that a nation’s digital economy success depends on National Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship policy.

He said, “We want to engage our start-ups, ICT hubs all over the country, identify their major challenges and see how government can provide an enabling environment for them to be very successful and that is the idea behind this policy.

“These are the two elements that will make the country a producing nation instead of a consuming nation. It is because of this I feel this is the right time to work on the National Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship policy.”

The Director-General of National Information Technology Development Agency, Mallam Kashifu Abdullahi, said that the government has seen how Jumia has been able to use digital marketing to create more than 5,000 direct jobs and grew to more than $1bn valuation within three years.

He said, ” Boston Consulting Group projected that by 2025, Jumia and other potential unicorn companies could create more than three million jobs in Africa.

“In line with this, the objective of the policy produced is to help institutionalized digital entrepreneurship in our country in line with President Muhammadu Buhari’s economic diversification agenda.”