Word on the street is that Nigeria is in an economic recession even though many people in government would disagree. But there is something they all agree upon – Nigeria needs to diversify its economy. While some are pushing for more investments in agriculture, several people are also mentioning tech but not as serious as it should be.
Tech is already a fast money spinning sector for Nigeria even though it still seems the industry is not still as well structured as it should be to attract generate ,pre revenues.
Earlier this week, a new report released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), revealed that the telecommunications sector contributed N 1. 58 billion, or 9.8 per cent to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the second quarter of the year alone. No other sector did more than that other than oil!
It represents an increase of 1.0 per cent points relative to the previous quarter, according to the statistics released earlier in the month. It signifies the largest contribution to GDP made from this sector in the rebased period, which emphasised that growth in telecommunications has remained robust when compared to total GDP.
Tech isn’t in recession
A major reason why focus ought to be on tech is that the sector continues to record growth in contrast with the economy as a whole.
Take telecom for instance. For the last five quarters, growth in telecommunications has been higher and consistently growing.
From the report, the total number of subscribers has increased rapidly over the past decade; at the end of 2005 there were 19,519,154 subscribers, but by the end of 2015 there were 151,017,244, which is equivalent to an increase of 13,149,809 every year. However, growth has been declining more recently, possibly as a result of high market penetration leaving less room for large expansion.
This increase is despite a sharp drop in CDMA subscribers; between June 2015 and June 2015 the number fell from 2,105,981 to 454,092, a decrease of 78.44 per cent.
Although CDMA remains the second most popular technology type, this decrease has meant that the GSM technology type has entrenched its position as the dominant provider of mobile subscriptions.
Way forward
Nigeria needs to really prioritize tech and the government needs to stop handling the sector as a mere talking point. Oil has brought so much and trouble to Nigeria. Its environmental unfriendliness is a major source of concern prompting active diversification of the local economy in order to boost Forex and to create employment opportunities for the nation’s unemployed demographics.
