Nigerian Government says NCC, others contribute over N1trillion to economy in 2 years

*The Information Communication Technology sector remains the fastest growing industry, and it is critical to driving infrastructure development in the Nigerian economy: Dr. Isa Ali Pantami, Minister for Communications and Digital Economy

Isola Moses | ConsumerConnect

In regard to contribution of the Information Communication Technology (ICT)/Telecoms sector to the Nigerian digital economy, the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy has disclosed how the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and other government agencies have made an appreciable, ‘unprecedented’ contribution to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth in the last two years.

Dr. Isa Ali Pantami, Honourable Minister for Communications and Digital Economy, who announced this development during an interview at the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Forum in Abuja, FCT.

The Minister stated that “as it is, within the two years I spent in office, the remittance of ICT sector to the Federal Government account is over N1trillion; this is unprecedented.

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“Through spectrum sale from the National Frequency Management Council assigned to the NCC, the Ministry has remitted over N358billion in within two years.”

Dr. Pantami noted that the ICT sector would increase its contributions to the country’s revenue and further boost the country’s Gross Domestic Product.

He also stressed the importance of ICT to the growth of the country’s economy, saying that ICT remains the fastest growing industry, and that it is critical to driving infrastructure development.

He as well stated that the ICT sector contributed 14.7 percent to Nigeria’s GDP in 2020, and the country should expect more contribution in view of the potential of the industry.

Pantami said: “Look at the statistics released by the National Bureau of Statistics in Q1 of 2021, and we are yet to see 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.”

The Minister further explained: “If you look at the remittance of the sector to the Federal Government account, it is unprecedented.

“Without the ICT sector, sometimes government will struggle to pay salaries.

“The earnings of small mobile operators that we remitted to the Federal Government, through Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) is over N601billion.

“Through capacity building and other government expenditure within the sector, the sector generated over N90billion.”

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According to him, the three examples alone amounted to N1.049trillion.

“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.

“Sometimes, we don’t even have N5billion including our personnel throughout the year,” said he.

Pantami added: “We only generate and give it to government for infrastructure: rail, transport, social intervention, works and housing, power and health.

“We generate and remit; we increased the generation by over 500 percent by the time I took over.”

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