Digital Economy, Veritable Platform for Job Creati...

Digital Economy, Veritable Platform For Job Creation ― Pantami

The digital economy has grown to become a veritable platform to create jobs around the world, thereby reducing the rate of unemployment globally.

The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Pantami, stated this over the weekend during the celebration of the Digital Nigeria Day and the United Nation's World Development Information Day.

Elaborating on the impact of the digital economy on job creation, the minister noted that the Year 2017 witnessed the digital economy contribute about 5.1 million jobs to the United States' economy.

Pantami added: “An official report in China also noted that digital economy created 191 million jobs in the country in 2018 and this was about 25 per cent of the total employment generated that year.

“Furthermore, the recent changes in work patterns as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic have also shown that the development of digital economies are no longer a luxury, rather they have become a necessity,” he noted.

The minister was also quick to note that the global digital economy makes up a significant proportion of the global economy.

“A report by Oxford Economics valued the digital economy at $11.5 trillion as at 2016, or approximately 16 per cent of the value of the global economy with the digital economy growing 2.5 times faster than global GDP over the past 15 years.

“According to McKinsey, the digital economy in Africa is expected to grow to over $300 billion by 2025. The World Economic Forum also predicts that over 60 per cent of global GDP will be digitised by 2022 and that within the next decade, digital platforms will be used to create close to 70 per cent of new value.

“We are also witnesses to how the COVID-19 pandemic has greatly increased the adoption of digital technologies. All these show the great value of the digital economy and serve as an incentive for countries to prioritise its development.

On his part, the Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Dr. Inuwa Abdullah narrated Nigeria's digital journey.

According to Dr. Abdullah, “The journey started just a year ago on October 23, 2019, when President Muhammadu Buhari renamed and expanded the mandate of our ministry to cover digital economy.

"This journey is full of new opportunities, exciting possibilities and significant challenges, but having the minister of communications and digital economy piloting and driving this journey, we were able to turn the challenges into delight, explore the possibilities and exploit the opportunities.

“That’s why within a year, we were able to do a lot in terms of implementation of the national digital economy policy and strategy for digital Nigeria.

“The achievements so far are unprecedented. Just ICT is an enabler not the digital economy, but the sector within just these few months has grown to 17.83 per cent.

“The minister is driving implementation of new initiatives that will help our young Nigerians, our youths the digitally native to unlock or to benefit from this new frontier. We are calling on the digital economy to create value for themselves and for country in general,” NITDA DG stated.