Take advantage of opportunities digital world offers to improve lives of citizens, Pantami tells governors

ABUJA, Nigeria – Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Ibrahim Isa Ali Pantami has challenged governors in Nigeria to take advantage of what the digital world can offer to improve the lives of citizens in their states.

Pantanmi gave the advice during the presentation of grants to three winners of the Digital Solutions Hackathon for  the COVID-19 pandemic.

The top three winners of the Virtual Hackathon are Elizade University Team, Primed E-Health Solutions and Cyberfleet. The Elizade University Team’s tech solution is an Automated Temperature Scanner (ATS), a device designed to conduct automatic temperature screening and contact tracing of persons with body temperature above the normal level for human beings.

Primed E-Health developed a mobile and web solution called SmartClinic, which can link a patient-based mobile health app with a hospital-based information management system while ‘KlassConnect’ by Cyberfleet is an online platform that can be deployed by schools to continue with teaching and learning activities regardless of any health challenges that may prevent face-to-face physical interactions.

The Minister said the digital economy and the traditional economy are very interdependent. “They catalyze each other”, he said. Quoting Oxford Economics, Pantami said the global digital economy is currently valued at 11.5 trillion US Dollars or approximately 16% of the Global Economy. 

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This value, he said is expected to grow significantly over the coming years, adding that innovation and local content development are one of the ways Nigeria hopes to make a launch pad into the global digital economy.

This development, he said informs the reason emphasis is placed on the need for deployment of solid infrastructure in Nigeria, as also indicated in the digital economic strategy roadmap.

He explained that the deployment of infrastructure like fibre optics rings round the country will ensure that whatever solutions evolved in the sector are made available for adoption and application.

He explained that since assumption of office, he has been able to increase broadband penetration to 42.02 percent from the 31.4 percent.

“We welcome the slashing of Right of Way charges and waivers by State Governors. This has been supportive of the roll-out of such critical national infrastructure and this will correspondingly lower the costs of digital services”, he said.

Pantami expressed hope that more Governors will toe the steps of the digitally smart Governors to ensure that their citizens enjoy the best services that the industry provides.