The Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy says the Information Communication Technology (ICT) sector will increase its contributions to the country’s revenue critical in driving infrastructural development in Nigeria.
The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Pantami, said this when he featured on a special News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) interview programme, FORUM.
The ICT sector had added more than N1 trillion to the national treasury in the past two years which the minister said he was optimistic it would surpass henceforth.
The minister, who emphasised the importance of ICT to the growth of the country’s economy, stressed that ICT remained the fastest growing industry in the country.
NAN recalls that the ICT sector contributed 14.7 per cent to the nation’s Gross Domestic Products (GDP) in 2020.
According to the minister, the country shall expect more contributions due to the potential in the industry.
“Look at the statistics released by the National Bureau of Statistics in the Q1 of 2021, and we are yet to see the Q2, they said that the fastest growing sector is the ICT sector.
“Throughout 2020, the fastest growing sector is the ICT sector.
“Mr President said that the ICT sector played the principal role of lifting Nigeria out of recession and if you look at the remittance of the sector to the Federal Government account, it is unprecedented.
“Without maybe the ICT sector, sometimes government would struggle to pay salary.
“As it is within the two years I spent in office, the remittance of ICT sector to the Federal Government account is over N1 trillion; this is unprecedented.
“Through spectrum sale from National Frequency Management Council assigned to Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), within these two years we remitted over N358 billion.
“Through the earnings of small mobile operators that we remitted to the Federal Government through Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) it is over N601billion.
“Through capacity building and other government expenditure within the sector, the sector generated over N90 billion. Only these three are over N1trillion.
“So, look at even the budget of government, how much is being generated?
“This is what we have done and if you look at our budget sometimes it is not up to N5billion; because we generate and give to others to spend.
”The minister stated that all revenues generated by the ministry and its agencies were deposited in the federal government’s account and not for use by the generating organisations.
“Sometimes we don’t even have N5 billion including our personnel cost throughout the year.
“We only generate and give it to government for infrastructure – rail, transport, social intervention, works and housing, power and health.
“We generate and remit and in certain areas we increased the generation by over 500 per cent by the time I took over,’’ Pantami added.
