Despite slow economic progress and unending security challenges, there is a ray of hope for the country as the information and communications technology (ICT) sector is said to have the capacity to compete with advanced countries.
The new Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, Festus Daudu, said this when he took over from his predecessor, Musa Istifanus in Abuja in December.
Daudu pointed out that Nigerians have the potential to compete with developed countries like the United States of America, the United Kingdom, and Russia in the area of ICT sector based on available human resources in the country.
The Permanent Secretary stated that Nigeria has passed the stage of comparison in the area of ICT with other developing countries within and outside the region adding that Nigeria should be competing with the likes of the United States, United Kingdom, and Russia.
He said the renaming of the Ministry as Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy was designed to be in line with global development noting that Nigeria cannot be left behind in the ICT world.
“The world is moving forward, we need to move with the globe,” Daudu, an engineer stressed. The Permanent Secretary requested for maximum cooperation from the management staff of the Ministry and urged them to work as a team to achieve the mandate of the Ministry for digital Nigeria.
According to him “a tree cannot make a forest. You need a collection of trees to produce a forest and I believe that all of you seated here are a collection of diverse human resources required to make the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy achieve its mandate”.
He noted that finances are the most difficult challenges in the system and urged the staff to maximize the little available to achieve the Ministry’s numerous policies and programmes for digital Nigeria.
The outgoing Permanent Secretary, Istifanus thanked the management and staff of the Ministry for their cooperation and support in the implementation of the policies and programmes of the Ministry.
He said, the new challenges before him now is to use the experience he acquired in the ICT sector and collaborate with his counterpart in the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy to promote surveillance technology that would enhance the efficiency of Nigerian troops in curbing issues of kidnapping, banditry, and terrorism in the country.
