The minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof Isa Pantami, has said that the consistent digital economy policies of the federal government of President Muhammadu Buhari has pushed government quarterly revenues from N51 billion to N 408.7 billion.
As part of activities to celebrate ‘Digital Nigeria Day’ the Minister told a news conference in Abuja yesterday that President Buhari’s approval of policies initiated by his Ministry not only attracted huge investments into the digital economy sector, but that the policies are being copied by Asian and African countries.
“This played a critical role in enabling Nigeria to exit recession. Furthermore, the quarterly revenues also generated for the federal government rose from N51.3 billion to N408.7 billion, through spectrum sales and taxes from the sector,” he said.
He added that the Buhari government crashed data price from 1,200 naira per Giga-Bite to 350 naira following the implementation of the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy, saying “it is now easier for more Nigerians to connect to Internet “,
Pantami said further that:”The ICT sector provided three unprecedented contributions to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country in the last 3 years, namely 14.07 per cent in Q1 2020, 17.92 per cent in Q2 2021 and 18.44 per cent in Q2 2022. At each time, these numbers have been the highest ever contribution of the ICT sector to the GDP.
“Also, the ICT sector grew by 14.70 per cent in Q4 2020, making it the fastest growing sector of the Nigerian economy in the last quarter of 2020 and the only sector to have grown by double digits.”
