Africa Press-Nigeria:<\/p>\n
The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, said the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) has contributed unprecedented 14.07 per cent to the nation\u2019s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).<\/p>\n
Mr Pantami stated this in a statement signed by Femi Adeluyi, Technical Assistant, Information Technology to the Minister on Sunday in Abuja.<\/p>\n
Mr Pantami said he was delighted to hear of the growth of ICT\u2019s contribution to Nigeria\u2019s GDP in the first quarter (Q1) of 2020.<\/p>\n
PREMIUM TIMES reported how the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released Nigeria\u2019s GDP report for the first quarter of 2020 on May 25.<\/p>\n
\u201dThe Report observed that the country\u2019s GDP grew by 1.87 per cent year-on-year in real terms in Q1 2020.<\/p>\n
\u201dThe non-oil sector contributed 90.50 per cent to the nation\u2019s GDP in Q1 2020 as opposed to the 9.50 per cent contributed to total real GDP by the oil sector.<\/p>\n
READ ALSO: Minister sets 10-year \u2018digital economy\u2019 goal for Nigeria
\n\u201dIt is noteworthy that the ICT sector contributed 14.07 per cent to the total real GDP in Q1 2020, higher than its contribution a year earlier, which was 13.32 per cent and in the preceding quarter, in which it accounted for 13.12 per cent.<\/p>\n
\u201dThis contribution is unprecedented,\u201d Mr Pantami said.<\/p>\n
Mr Pantami said that the growing contribution of the ICT sector to the GDP was a direct result of the focused and committed effort of the federal government.<\/p>\n
He said the federal government\u2019s strategic policy direction included inclusion of Digital Economy in the mandate of the Ministry, unveiling and implementation of National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy as well as National Broadband Plan, among others.<\/p>\n
The minister noted that the COVID-19 pandemic had shown how critical the ICT sector was to the growth of the country\u2019s digital economy and by extension, the general economy.<\/p>\n
He called on all sectors to take advantage of the government\u2019s new focus on the digital economy to enable and improve their processes through the use of ICT.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis would enhance the output of all the sectors of the economy and boost Nigeria\u2019s GDP,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Africa Press-Nigeria: The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, said the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) has contributed unprecedented 14.07 per cent to the nation\u2019s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Mr Pantami stated this in a statement signed by Femi Adeluyi, Technical Assistant, Information Technology to the Minister on Sunday in Abuja. Mr Pantami […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":25721,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,15],"tags":[1451,342,632],"class_list":["post-25720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-economy","tag-covid-19","tag-gdp","tag-ict"],"yoast_head":"\n