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•As sector outperformed others with 18.44% contribution

•Excited Pantami says  95% digital literacy by 2030 promising

•ATCON calls for concessions to sustain trajectory

 By Prince Osuagwu, Hi-Tech Editor

At the weekend, the National Bureau of Statistics, NBC announced that  Information and Communications Technology, ICT contributed 18.44 percent to the total real GDP in Q2 2022.

With this contribution the sector has consecutively outperformed self and other sectors in the last three contributions – Q1 2020, Q2 2021 and now Q2 2022.

However, this is the sector’s highest ever contribution to the GDP, and, Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof Isa Pantami and other industry stakeholders are calling on the federal government to refocus its priorities and keep eyes on the big pie.

The Minister claimed that the growing contribution of the ICT sector to the GDP is as a result of many factors, including government’s commitment to developing the digital economy, the ministry’s diligent implementation of the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS) for a Digital Nigeria, stakeholder engagement and creation of an enabling environment.

He, however, admitted there is still more to do to achieve more.   This is, also, as Chairman of the Association of Licensed Telecommunications of Nigeria, ALTON Engr Gbenga Adebayo has charged the federal government to leverage on this contribution to redirect its attention to the sector by giving supports and making concessions that will enable operators thrive and further the momentum in GDP contribution.

Apparently the call became necessary because for the third consecutive time, ICT has floored Oil sector, the perceived mainstay of the economy to boosting the GDP.

According to the NBC report, the oil sector contributed only 6.33 per cent to the total real GDP in Q2 2022, which was even lower than the contribution in Q2 ‘2021 and Q1 ‘2022, where it added 7.42 per cent and 6.63 per cent respectively. 

ICT’s unprecedented contribution pushed the non-oil sector’s contribution to grow by 4.77 per cent in real terms, resulting in a 93.67 per cent contribution to the nation’s GDP in the Q2 ‘2022, higher than Q2 ‘2021 and Q1 ‘2022, where it contributed 92.58 per cent and 93.37 per cent respectively.

  ICT’s growth trajectory

Since the past ten years, ICT has maintained a steady growth and a major boost to the country’s GDP, overtaking the mainstay of the economy, Oil at some point and had remained the top earner till date.

Except in 2013, when there was a slight drop, ICT contribution to GDP had maintained a steady growth rate between 2012 and 2022.

According to statistics obtained from NCC’s website, telecoms contribution to GDP in 2012 was 7.7 per cent, but the figure doubled to 14.3 percent as at the second quarter of 2020. This represented a N2.3 trillion growth, whereas the total contribution of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) to GDP was 17.5 percent.

In 2012, telecoms contribution to GDP was 7.7 percent and in 2013, the contribution dropped slightly to 7.4 per cent, but it picked up again in 2014, contributing 7.6 per cent to GDP. In 2015, it increased contribution to 8.5 per cent and hit 9.13 percent in 2016. In 2017, it contributed 8.7 per cent and 9.9 percent in 2018.

In 2019, telecoms contribution to GDP grew again to 10.6 percent and as at second quarter of 2020 it has skyrocketed to 14.3 percent, representing N2.3 trillion. It continued in that trajectory, to hit 17.5 percent at the end of 2020. It helped in not only taking the economy out of recession but also ensuring the economy does not relapse.

In 2021, NBC report said    ICT sector contributed 17.92 percent to the GDP. The figure was 20.54 percent higher than its contribution in 2020. The figure was also unprecedented at the time and, in fact, the highest contribution of ICT to the GDP before that year.

Continuing in that trajectory, ICT has added 16.20 percent to GDP growth in Q1,2022 and now 18.44 in Q2,2022.

According to ICT industry players, this shouldn’t come as a surprise, considering that world over ICT has provided recovery support to key economic sectors post-pandemic.

In dire situations, ICT has always provided the bail-out option and that is why stakeholders believe that  the performance of the ICT sector is expected to continue on an upward trajectory.

More to this projection is that the sector has built strong blocks to healthy sectoral growth since after the pandemic, creating opportunities that have seen people adjusting to the new normal. Traditional brick and mortar in-person financial services are giving way to digital banking and online delivery of financial services. These, have aided the sector’s strong showing in GDP contributions.

Govt should pay attention

Yet, Pantami said there are more to gain from the sector if the government can only keep paying attention.

“Should the people keep faith with the industry policies the ministry has put in place, the GDP will continue to be stronger with the contributions of ICT” he said.

He said: “The unprecedented contribution of ICT to Nigeria’s GDP is expected. It is as a result of the developments in the digital economy. The 16 National Policies developed by the Ministry, the 1,667 projects and programmes, the large scale digital skills and general capacity building efforts, stakeholder engagement and creation of an enabling environment. They have all played an important role in this achievement.

“ Also, the dynamic and result-oriented leadership of the sector, which has been acknowledged and appreciated by a wide spectrum of the stakeholders in the sector, both locally and internationally, played a role.   

“The GDP report has shown how critical the ICT sector is to the growth of the country’s digital economy and, by extension, the general economy. We call on all sectors to take advantage of the Federal Government’s new focus on the digital economy to enable and improve their processes through the use of ICTs”

  95% digital literacy now achievable

  The Minister also used the opportunity of a digital training in Gombe, same weekend, to celebrate the ICT GDP contribution feat, saying, now, Nigeria’s march towards attaining 95 per cent digital literacy in 2030 as contained in the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (2020 – 2030), looks more promising than ever.

The NCC facilitated Digital Job Creation Training is a two weeks program targeted at youths desirous of developing their ICT skills ready for participation in the digital economy. The training has taken place in nine other states, including the Federal Capital Territory, FCT.

Each participant at the training received starter packs comprising laptop with accessories, MiFi Modem with three months data subscription, and seed funding.

Pantami who presided over the graduation of participants at the end of the programme said: “The reason we train citizens is because digital skills are no longer considered a luxury, but necessities required in any business today.

“ICT is not just an independent sector but the key enabler of all other sectors today. It enables opportunities in education, health, agriculture,    security,    defence,    manufacturing, trade, investment and industry.

  “We have to utilise ICT in order to make our country a better place. The recent reports of the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, on the performance of each sector of the economy, indicated an unprecedented ICT’s contribution of 18.44 per cent to the economy.

“By implications, we set a record last year and we surpassed that record this second quarter of 2022. Could it have been possible without involving the digital services? Only the ICT sector contributed 18.44 per cent, which can be attributed to the policies which we have introduced in the sector”, he added.

Incentives ’ll sustain trajectory

Corroborating him, the Chairman of Association of    Licensed Telecom Operators of Nigeria, ALTON, Engr Gbenga Adebayo admitted that despite prevailing inflationary pressures and the adverse impact of regulatory changes, the Industry’s outlook remains stable on the premise that the ICT sector will provide recovery support to key economic sectors. 

He believes that the anticipated business diversification efforts of operators will also support the outlook and keep contributing handsomely to the GDP.

However, he lamented that telecoms services, for instance, are being seen as a source of internal revenue for all tiers of government, making the operating environment very high and costly.

He said: “the government should leverage on this unprecedented contribution to get more from the industry by way of creating incentives that will help operators give more. For instance, access to Foreign exchange, Forex has been a business struggle for operators whose businesses require dollar transactions. They queue all day long to get forex and at the end, may not get enough.

“Again, we are talking about the benefits of 5G; Nigeria may not properly harness them if the operators cannot conveniently bring in the devices and terminals which will enable smooth operations. Obviously we know these devices are not manufactured here in the country.

“So, the government has to think of incentives which will do away with bottlenecks to importing these devices” he stated.

He is optimistic that these strategies will help operators create more values  which will result to sustaining the trajectory of ICT contribution to the GDP.