Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Prof. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami on Tuesday said Africa’s largest economy must continue to promote innovation and entrepreneurship to compete globally.
Global competitiveness refers to the ability of nations to supply high-quality goods and services at reasonable costs, resulting in satisfactory returns.
He said this during a lecture delivered at the National Defence College in Abuja while being represented by Engr. Aliyu A. Aziz, Director General, National Identity Management Commission (NIMC).
In his lecture titled: “Digital Economy and National Development: Building Nigeria’s Resilience for Global Competitiveness,” Pantami said Nigeria must raise the bar by competing globally with other developed countries.
“By competing with ourselves, we will be missing out on external factors. We should improve and be competitive globally.”
The establishment of the National Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship Centre which was spearheaded by the Ministry will provide Nigeria many benefits that would transform the nation’s economy into innovation and entrepreneurship driven economy.
Responding to why Nigeria was rushing to launch a 5G network when other network generations such as 3G were not fully maximized, he said the country needed to take advantage of every technological advancement.
“We can’t stay in one place. 5G has lots of potentials which will be even beneficial to those in rural areas. When there is a new technology, we have to tap into it and move forward.”
5G technology can solve some of the pressing challenges in the country since the technology provides real-time services and platforms.
On data harmonization, he said, in government data will be gathered into a single data repository, lots of work has been put into it and meetings have been ongoing.
