The Federal Government has a target of generating $88bn and creating three million jobs through the nation’s digital economy within a period of 10 years.
It stated that it had embarked on activities to effectively grow the digital space in order to actualise the target, as it officially inaugurated the nation’s first digital classroom in Abuja on Tuesday.
Speaking at the inauguration ceremony, which was held at the Pilot Science School in Abuja, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Sustainable Development Goals, Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, said the Federal Government was working hard to actualise the dream of a knowledge-based and innovation-driven digital economy.
She said senior government officials recently visited Silicon Valley in the United States and engaged with chief executive officers of several global information and technology companies in a bid to further enhance Nigeria’s digital space.
Orelope-Adefulire said, “Only recently, we hosted Google executives who are working to provide free Internet to 10 million Nigerians in key locations across the country. Google, like several other IT companies, is establishing a strong presence in Nigeria not out of altruism but based on hard and rational logic of profit to be made and potential to impact a large youthful market of 200 million population.
“The Nigerian digital economy will generate an estimated $88bn and create three million jobs over the next 10 years. Today, we are experiencing a different kind of revolution. It is the digital revolution. Our world is a global village and what happens in one end of the world reverberates in another end in micro seconds.”
She stated that Information and Communication Technology had brought new opportunities for businesses and individuals, decreasing the cost of productivity and enhancing organisational effectiveness.
On the digital classroom, she appreciated the team from Netdragon Websoft, led by its Chairman, Dejian Liu, for the donation of the facility to one of the communities in Abuja.
On the SDGs, Orelope-Adefulire explained that the goals were adopted by the heads of state and government at the 70th session of the United Nation General Assembly in September, 2015 in New York, with President Muhammadu Buhari in attendance.