By Omoh Gabriel, Business Editor
MINISTER of State for Finance, Remi Babalola said, yesterday, that Nigeria needed to move beyond the stop-start development patterns of an oil-based economy to create a stable and prosperous base for a 21st century society built on a critical mass of knowledge workers.

He said the most promising sector was the service sector, specifically the absorption of ICT, in view of the short to medium term limitations in power and transport.

He said the nation needed this shift “to achieve a quantum leap on the Millennium Development Goals, MDGs, as well as achieve the national Vision 20:2020”.

Babalola said: “Growing the service sector implies embracing the knowledge economy paradigm, developing education and skills, and putting in place a modern communications infrastructure.

“Freeing the country’s dynamic businesses to create more ICT jobs will create more opportunities for our teeming youth, and accelerate the achievement of the MDG s and Vision 20.20.20. Indeed, there is no better leverage for self employment and entrepreneurship opportunities than through the use of ICT.”

He assured that the achievement of most of the MDGs could be fast-tracked with increased usage of ICTs in the economy.

The minister who said that no modern economy could thrive without an integral information technology and telecommunications infrastructure, said that ICTs provide the veritable platform for rapid growth of our economy, if well harnessed.

He noted: “The power of ICTs can be effectively harnessed through the participation and cooperation of all stakeholders in our society – government, private sector and development partners. ICT remains an enabler that could help Nigeria and other African countries get out of the doldrums of backwardness and move faster.”

The minister cited Korea, India and the United States of America as countries that had harnessed the power of new technologies to nurture a cadre of knowledge workers that have pushed the productivity and innovation frontiers.

Babalola who spoke at the second summit on Information and Communication Technologies, ICTs, in National Development held at the Trenchard Hall of the University of Ibadan, Oyo State emphasised that the era when natural resources dominated trade had given way to a new era in which knowledge resources were paramount.