FG hopes to create 2.5 million jobs in ICT by 2020

folarin okunola

June 12, 2017 3:20 PM

Is this just another way for the government to blow some smoke in the eyes of Nigerians?

Adebayo Shittu

The Federal Government has approved ‘plans’ for an “ICT Roadmap to 2020” which it hopes will create as much as 2.5 million jobs in the country’s ICT sector.

From the days of its election campaigns, the Buhari-led government have touted various kinds of policies and ‘plans’ for various sectors in the country with none yet to either be implemented or ineffective in its purpose.

According to a Techcity report, Communications minister Adebayo Shittu made the announcement saying the Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved the ‘plans’ for a framework that will lead to the development of ICT in Nigeria.

While all of that is well and dandy, the government [and the Minister] are not sharing any concrete details on how exactly this ‘framework’ is going to be setup, what measures have been put in place to ensure it reaches its potential, amongst other pertinent questions.

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“The ICT roadmap is a component of the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP 2017 to 2020) recently launched by the federal government. When implemented, it would increase Nigeria’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth to 20 per cent by 2020,” said Comms Minister Shittu, according to the Techcity report.

Projections and figure-spouting is not new. Shittu, as well as a whole of government officials/officeholders, have spewed such numbers before, several times in Nigeria’s rich history.

Is this just another way for the government to blow some smoke in the eyes of Nigerians? Are these really achievable goals? Assuming the government does have a plan, can it be trusted to see it through?

Let us know your thoughts in the comments sections below.

folarin okunola