The Minister of Communications Technology, Mr Adebayo Shittu yesterday in Abuja said investment in the mobile telecoms industry would hit $166billion and create over 6.1 million jobs by year 2020.
According to him 2.7 million direct jobs would be created, while another 3.4 million indirect jobs would also come from the sector.
Mr Shittu who spoke while declaring open the” 2015 Emerge Tech Summit” in Abuja said, the mobile industry employed two million people directly as at last year, noting that by 2020 an additional 700, 000 jobs would be generated by the sector.
He said: “By 2020, it is expected that the mobile market would be worth $166 billion or N33 trillion and this represents eight per cent of the region’s GDP (gross domestic product) as opposed to 5.7 per cent of GDP in 2014.
“At the end of 2014, Nigeria alone had about 136 million registered lines from the four major operators ( Etisalat MTN, Glo and Airtel). Nigeria telecom operators accounted for 35 per cent of the total Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into Nigeria in 2014 alone.”
Mr Shittu said following the commitment of the present administration to invest massively in infrastructure facilities as a way of creating jobs for the youths, the ball is now in their courts to “galvanise their lofty ideas into profitable ventures in ICT, web development, mobile applications, software, internet security, cloud computing and microchip processing developers.”
Mr Shittu reiterated President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration’s commitment to build an all-inclusive “political and economic institutions that provide the driving wheels for emerging businesses and startups.”
He said this is the reason the government considered Emerge Tech Platform critical to the development of the nation.
In his remarks, the Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission, Professor Umar Danbatta said the commission would not relent in its efforts to ensure the delivery of quality service to subscribers and urged all stakeholders in the industry to ensure that their activities and operations are in line with international best practices and standard.
