The Nigerian economy recorded a boost of over $101 million in the third quarter of 2018 through Information Technology (IT) startups in the country.
This was disclosed by the Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, during the “Start-ups Friday” programme in Abuja.
Dr. Pantami noted that the achievement was unprecedented in the history of the ICT sector in the country, while full of optimism added that more amazing performances were expected in the sector in the coming years.
The Director-General stated that ICT contributed 13.63 percent to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the second quarter with a forecast of likely increase in the third and fourth quarters.
He said, “With the little effort we have put in place, a lot has been achieved in the ICT sector today. In the case of our ICT start-ups, within the first quarter of 2018, start-ups generated $9m, in the second quarter, they generated $57m, and recently in the third quarter, they generated $35m.
“This is only within 2018. This achievement is unprecedented in the history of the ICT sector in Nigeria.”
In a related development, Dr. Pantami revealed that there was also a surge in the patronage of local IT content as a result of strict enforcement of policies in the sector.
According to him, in 2013 over 82,000 ICT facilities of the local content were purchased, adding that in the year 2014 and 2015, 92,000 facilities of hardware were purchased, while in 2016, he said 150,000 facilities were purchased and in 2017, the purchase of local content rose to 300,750.
The NITDA boss attributed this achievement to the enforcement of IT policy particularly the hardware component.
While speaking on the Start-up Friday event, Dr. Pantami said, “We called this event ‘Start-up Friday’ but we are moving from one geopolitical zone to the other; we did one each in the North West, South West, North East, and South-South and this is Abuja, North Central, and from here we will be moving to the South East.
“The wisdom behind this is to identify our young innovators who have potentials and see how they can be supported to achieve their dreams,” the Director-General added.
