To unleash Nigeria’s potential for industrialisation and sustainable economic growth, and to ensure competitiveness in a global digital economy, the government has said it will take measures to digitise the economy and make digitalisation a key driver of national economic development strategies.
The N150 billion, which according to the Federal Government, is public investment, will be spread across priority projects in the sector as well as projects essential to the operations of the relevant ministries. These constraints include, digital and financial exclusion of key segments of the population, intermittent access to power which threatens the development of the ICT sectors, particularly to the telecoms and IT services and last-mile connectivity, lack of local funding for promising start-ups and low capacity of digital infrastructure and institutions, especially in non-commercial hubs.
“Thus, to create high-growth businesses, including unicorns and maximize job creation opportunities, the digital economy building blocks are of strategic importance and priority,” the document stated. According to the document, these trends have led to an influx of world-leading multinationals establishing operations in Nigeria as well as international equity investments into start-ups operating in these sectors.