The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Professor Isa Ibrahim Pantami, has expressed his delight over growing contribution of the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in recent quarters.
Reacting to the just published ‘Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product Report’ for Q2 2022’ by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the minister said that report by the NBS indicated that the ICT sector contributed 18.44% to the total real GDP in Q2 2022, representing the highest contribution of ICT to the nation’s GDP.
According to him, the sector’s contribution to the GDP in the quarter under review is truly unprecedented and marks the third quarter, namely Q1 2020, Q2 2021 and Q2 2022, that the sector has achieved the feat since he assumed office.
An analysis of the contributions by sectors in the report showed that the oil sector contributed 6.33% to the total real GDP in Q2 2022, which was lower that the contribution in Q2 ‘2021 and Q1 ‘2022, where it contributed 7.42% and 6.63% respectively.
Also, the non-oil sector’s contribution grew by 4.77% in real terms, resulting in a 93.67% contribution to the nation’s GDP in the Q2 ‘2022, higher than Q2 ‘2021 and Q2 ‘2022, where it contributed 92.58% and 93.37% respectively.
Pantami noted that the growing contribution of the ICT sector to the GDP was linkable to the commitment of the present administration to the development of the digital economy.
He further explained that the diligent implementation of the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS) for technology-powered Nigeria, stakeholder engagement and creation of an enabling environment all played an important role in the ICT sector’s achievements.
In addition, the minister also linked the feat to the dynamic and results-oriented leadership of the sector which has consistently noted how critical the ICT sector remained to the growth of the country’s economy.
While thanking all stakeholders’ support which made the feat recorded by the sector possible , Pantami also renews his call to all sectors to take advantage of the government’s new focus on the digital economy to improve their processes through the use of ICTs and by so doing enhance the other sectors’ contributions to the nation’s GDP.
