DR. ISA ALI IBRAHIM PANTAMI insists the Digital Economy Policy and Strategy Documents is a synthesis from the input of all stakeholders, including but not limited to the industry regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission, saying they are equally critical to its meticulous implementation.

NTA GOOD MORNING NIGERIA:  Honourable Minister, significantly, your ministry was rechristened and Digital Economy was then added.  Tell us the rationale and the significance of that rechristening and thereby lead us into what exactly we are dealing with when we refer to the digital economy.

DR. ISA ALI IBRAHIM PANTAMI: Thank you very much for asking this very important question.  As you all know,  we were assigned portfolio on the 21^st of August 2019.The first thing I did was to listen to presentations from the Directors of the Ministry and the Permanent Secretary, as well as the Heads of parastatals under the purview of the ministry.  Through the presentations, I was able to understand their achievements, their challenges, their plans for the future and many more.  After the presentations, as well, I discovered that most of the activities being conducted then were more of obsolete approach to ICT, while the direction of the world today is towards the digital economy and that was what was missing during my discussion with them. And from that day we unanimously agreed that there is the need for the ministry and the parastatals to focus more on digital economy.  Because of that, I wrote a proposal to Mr. President , President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, on the need of our country to focus more and give more attention to digital economy because this is what the whole world is about today. The President has approved and also mandated us to coordinate the activities of our digital economy in the country.  The approval was granted on the 17^th of October 2019.  It was also presented at the Federal Executive Council (FEC) on the 23^rd October 2019 and we started the process of our implementation on the 24^th of October 2019. Part of the directives  of Mr. President to us was to develop our National Digital Economy Policy & Strategy(NDEPS) for a Digital Nigeria, which we did within the timeframe and on 28^th November 2019, Mr. President was at the International Conference Centre, Abuja, where he unveiled and launched the document and from that time to this time, we have been working towards its implementation.  As you rightly observed, in your question, digital economy is the direction of the world today.  And your reporters have quoted something, as part of the introduction, that the World Economic Forum (WEF) had predicted that 60 per cent of our world economy is going to be digitalised.  However, in the presentation they said by 2020 while World Economic Forum, said it is by 2022.  However, because of this COVID-19 pandemic, most probably, that could be achieved even before the end of 2020, because many activities , many commercial activities, are being digitalized.  And even since 2016, US$11.5 trillion was generated in 2016 through digital economy and this is a clear indication that with this pandemic, it becomes necessary to fast-track the process of implementing digital economy in Nigeria, because many developed nations have achieved that; developing nations are still doing their best to achieve that, for example, like India,  like China and many more. And I think this is what we are planning to achieve in Nigeria.  And in the NDEPS Document, we came up with at least 8 pillars that are very critical to the development of  digital economy in our country:

1. Developmental Regulation
2. Digital Skills
3. Solid Infrastructure
4. Service Infrastructure
5. Digital Services Promotion and Development
6. Soft  Infrastructure
7. Digital Society and Emerging Technologies
8. Indigenous Content Development and Promotion

These are the 8 pillars of our National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy  for a Digital Nigeria.  So this is the document we have been working on and so far, so good.  With all sense of humility, a lot has been achieved from the time we developed the policy and we started implementation till date. And this is very important also to our country looking at our population around 200 million people. Secondly,  not only the population but also the nature of our population, a population that has been dominated by youth and I think this is very relevant to our country and if we get it right, and we get the support of all stakeholders in the next  few years, we will all be proud of our country.

NTAGMN: You described the NDEPS as ‘a well-conceived policy on track and built on the objectives that will wrought digital economy in both the public and private sectors  and Nigerians are making their mark globally. So, in what ways are we harnessing the skills of these young men and women out there who  globally re coming out to say: We can do this and Nigeria can move forward digitally .How do you enhance their skills?

DIAIP: I think we have many activities in which we are supporting the youths of this country when it comes to the digital economy.  Looking at our population and a population that has been dominated by youth, however, looking at the constraints of resources, will not be enough and we need to , at least get more support of the Federal Government so that we will be able to accommodate many youths. However, recently you if you could recall during this COVID-19 pandemic, we introduced what we call Virtual Academy. Two virtual institutions, one is the Military and number two is the National Information Technology Development Agency(NITDA).  In this process, youths are encouraged to go into the programme, acquire digital skills, particularly in the area of emerging technologies like cloud computing, cybersecurity, IoT, artificial intelligence, etc. Through these virtual academies, so far, those who enroll into the programme (as at two weeks ago, the total is over 50,000 youths in the country and it is free. This is a world-class training being offered by IBM, Microsoft, CISCO and many more. This is one of the programmes.  Secondly we have a programme we call Startup Friday under NITDA. This programme is a place where we challenge our youths  to come up with ‘crazy ideas’ ‘disruptive innovations’ where they come and pitch and there is a team of panelists who evaluates their performance , the quality of their innovation, and at the same time the potential  of  supporting the innovation.  Through the process,  the best are going to be selected(and they are being selected always). We usually support them in cash and in  kind.  In cash usually, we provide seed fund, in kind we usually mentor them, keep their record in our database and continue to track their performance and at the same time the way they continue to advance the technology; we usually link them up with relevant federal institutions that require their innovation. Some are in hitech agric, some are in security, some are in education.  We take it upon ourselves that if your innovation is good  and at least is adoptable, we would be able to support you, link you up with the institution that could need the technology to deploy it. These are some of the activities that we have been doing. Even recently, we introduced hitech which is also very important trying to, at least, integrate our agriculture into technology.  This is what many countries have achieved and they are proud of it like the Netherlands.  It is just a small country (the total landmass of the Netherlands is not up to Niger State)and their population is just around the population of either Lagos State or Kano State. What the Netherlands generated  in 2019 alone is over 10 times what our country generated through oil and gas and they generated through  hitech agric.  In 2019, what the Netherlands generated through hitech agric is more than 10 times we generated through oil and gas, so this is a clear indication that today, digital technology is not just a standalone sector, but rather it is the key enabler for each and every sector. Without digital technologies,  most of our hospitals are going to be like traditional places, without digital technology,  security institutions cannot perform, without digital technology, our banking sector is going to be obsolete, without digital technology, even agric cannot perform well. So digital technology is not a standalone system, but rather, it is the key enabler that tries to make each and every sector more effective and productive and this is what we are doing our best to achieve.

NTAGMN: Let’s further interrogate the NDEPS document which the government has just released. You did say the achievement of the goals will be dependent on the roles of stakeholders. ..How much input of the stakeholders did you get into the formulation of the document?

DIAIP: I think we developed the document by contacting almost each and every stakeholder. If I say each and every stakeholder, I don’t mean individuals but at least their associations and their bodies: stakeholders in engineering, stakeholders in computing, stakeholders in telecommunications, all of them were contacted and they formed a team that partook in the revision and what we call expert review ; all of them were part and parcel of  those who partook in the expert review.  The video of Mr. President you presented was the actual time that we started the process of digital economy, it was from November 28, 2019. During that event we invited all stakeholders , over 250 stakeholders.  This document was presented to them at the International Conference Centre and throughout the conference, (from 28th, 29th through 30^th of  November, 2019) these three days, the document was presented and stakeholders were allowed to key into it, look into it critically, come up with recommendations, with constructive criticisms on how to make the document more effective.  So, this is part of what we have done.  Besides the participants of over 2000 and all of them were given the opportunity to look into the document and come up with their recommendations with constructive criticisms on how to improve it.  Furthermore, we looked at the relevant ministries and parastatals of the Federal Government of Nigeria.  When the draft was produced, we sent it to all of them to look into the document, not only during conference, but rather to look into the document, come up with their recommendations, on how to make it more effective. All the relevant ministries and parastatals were contacted and I personally signed a letter to all of them with a copy of the draft to look into it. So what we did really: we consulted almost all of our stakeholders that we felt were relevant to the implementation of that document. As long as you have a role to play or you are a ministry, department or agency, or if you are from the private sector and have a role in that, definitely you had been contacted and were part and parcel of those who contributed to the development of the document and, by extension, you are expected to be part of parcel of those who are to implement it.

NTAGMN: State Governments?

DIAIP: Including state governments…

NTAGMN: Are you on the same page with state governments?

DIAIP: We are on the same page with state governments and other stakeholders.  State Governors, from January 16, 2020, through the Executive Governor of Ekiti State, who happens to be the Chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum, so I engaged all of them physically, I presented them with the NDEPS, they all asked questions and most of them keyed into it there and then and it is because of them that some even formalized the process and we are in touch with them  it is part of that that of the strategic process of supporting some state with state digital economic policy and strategy which is an attempt to customize our national digital policy and strategy by looking at the peculiar situation and challenges of each and every state and see what we can produce for them, because if you say national digital economy policy and strategy, we did not say federal, so by saying national, it means it is for all the country, not limited to the federal government, but the entire country in which federal, state, and local governments have a role to play.

NTAGMN: From your explanation, Honourable Minister, it would appear State Governors have already bought into the NDEPS.  At the state level, who would be the focal point as we now hear there is a Commissioner for Digital Economy in some states unlike what we have at the federal level. So, who is the focal point or person or desk as the case may be, at the state level to liaise with you?

DIAIP: Actually, development or innovation usually begins with the federal government. By October 20,2019, there was nothing like digital economy in the country. By October 16, 2019, there was nothing like Digital Economy Ministry even in Nigeria In less than a year we couldn’t  have a Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy but today, we have Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy.  So this is a clear indication that our digital economy journey has started. Secondly, as you rightly stated, we don’t have Ministry of Digital Economy in our states.  However, digital economy can be implemented by relevant ministries.  For example, you may have Ministry of ICT; you may have Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, you may have Ministry of Education, it all depends what is available. And in some states, there have Special Advisers on ICT, Senior Special Assistants on ICT, so when it comes to mandate, this is left with the Executive Governor to look at which Ministry should coordinate their activities.  Today, in Nigeria, it is not just our responsibility at the ministry to implement digital economy but rather our main responsibility is to coordinate its implementation, because many stakeholders have a role to play.  When it comes to digital economy, Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning has a role to play, Ministry of Education has a key role to play, and many more. So this is just an example. So in our states, the Executive Governor will look into the relevant institution today  we have an agency that is similar to NITDA, state IT agencies, some call it state ICT agencies, like in Plateau State, Ondo State, etc. So it all depends on what the Governor wants to do; he may wish to ask this ministry to do or that agency to do or he may assign the responsibility to a person, to his adviser or coordinate the activities.

• Pantami, Minister of Communications and Digital Economy was a guest on NTAGMN on July 21, 2020.