By Gbenga Abulude (Politics and General Desk)
The Federal Government said the telecommunication Industry loses $2.16bn annually to capital flight.
This was made known by the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Pantami, at the Digital Nigeria Day.
However, to tackle this annual loss, Pantami stated that government had developed a policy to promote indigenous content.
In a statement at the celebration of Digital Nigeria Day held in Abuja over the weekend, the minister said the Indigenous Content, Development and Adoption, under Pillar #8 of the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy would solve the lingering issue.
The national policy launched in 2020 will afford the nation to develop capacity building for local contents in the ICT for 10 years
“As part of our efforts to promote indigenous content, we have developed a policy for promoting indigenous content in the telecom sector to complement similar efforts that focus on the information technology sector.
“This is important to stem the tide of capital flight, among other things. A report of the Association of Telecommunication Companies of Nigeria suggests that such capital flight in the telecom sector is as high as $2.16bn annually.
“A healthy digital economy requires a robust indigenous content policy to significantly reduce this,” he said.
Pantami noted that it was of utmost importance and as a matter of urgency to promote the development of indigenous content in every sector of the economy.
He reiterated that #Pillar 8 of the national digital economy policy and strategy which is the Indigenous Content Development and Adoption plan would address this for the digital economy.
“This pillar aligns with Executive Orders 003 of May 2017 and 005 of February 2018, on ‘Support for Local Content Procurements by Ministries, Department and Agencies of the Federal Government of Nigeria,” he added.
The minister also noted that the solid infrastructure arm of the digital economy policy would address the need to provide broadband access and data centres required to enable citizens to access the digital solutions.
He stressed the Nigerian National Broadband Plan (2020-2025) was developed to accelerate the growth of broadband connectivity across the country.
“The plan is designed to deliver data download speeds across Nigeria of a minimum 25Mbps in urban areas, and 10Mbps in rural areas, with effective coverage available to at least 90 per cent of the population by 2025.
“This will be at a price not more than N390 per 1GB of data (two per cent of median income or one per cent of minimum wage), he said.
Pantami said government also approved the designation and protection of relevant telecommunications infrastructure across the country as critical national infrastructure.
The Digital Nigeria Day was celebrated on Saturday in Abuja by the communications ministry, its agencies and other stakeholders in the sector.
