The rapid growth in Nigeria’s Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) and its multiplier effect, particularly on the informal sector has, no doubt, confounded many a cynic. Who could have imagined how stunted Nigeria would have been if she had not developed access to ICT in this era of globalisation? The period of erratic service from telecom providers had gradually given way to improved service, expansion of coverage, increase number of lines and connectivity with a 22 per cent broadband penetration in Nigeria.

Nigeria, like most developing nations, has come to recognise the importance of ICT as a catalyst for sustainable socio-economic development. This recognition is well captured in the National Development Plan: Nigeria’s Vision 2020 and ICT strategic Roadmap 2017-2020.

The increasing globalisation driven by ICT makes it imperative for Nigeria, as an emerging market, to irreversibly consider the application and promotion of ICT strategy to facilitate its rapid growth and development in both formal and informal sectors of the economy.

No doubt, Nigeria has not yet reach the peak but the rapid adoption of digital technology and 165 million active lines and 100 million internet connectivity, the country has made a huge stride in ICT which is consistently contributing about 10 per cent to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) thereby showing that there is still great potential in the country’s telecom market.

It is on record that contribution of ICT, especially telecomm sector to the informal sector of the economy, has not been fully captured unlike the formal sector that has statistical data to measure its activities. The enormous contribution of ICT in the informal sector cannot be quantified because of the inability to measure satisfaction in human beings. This is the lacuna that needs to be quickly addressed.

Through the instrumentality of the social media, ICT has been silently promoting friendship and unity among numerous tribes engaging in the informal sector of the economy despite the isolated crisis in some parts of the country just like the game of football which breaks barrier across the board regardless of demography and geography.

ICT has immensely aided trade in building confidence among different tribes, loyalty and dedication on the part of people in commerce and industry especially in the informal sector.

The use of the new media, particularly Facebook and WhatApp, to transact business has also contributed immensely to the growth of the informal sector of the economy which has also provided income opportunities to many Nigerians. Not only that, it serves as a veritable window for numerous sellers that do not have capacity to rent a shop.

Interestingly, the power of ICT has manifested in in addressing the vexed issue of rural - urban drift as both urban and rural dwellers have internet connections thereby, providing platforms for people to share their varied interests through exchange of information thereby reinforcing family and friendship ties in the country.

ICT infrastructure have brought about the fastest means of exchanging ideas, educating the populace and also serve as a drive-in knowledge sharing among the different classes of people in Nigeria and the diaspora.

The determination of the present government, through regulatory agencies such as the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Nigerian Communications Satellite (NIGCOMSAT) and Galaxy Backbone (GBB) as well as stakeholders in the ICT sector to meet up with the 30 per cent Broadband Penetration, have opened opportunities for Nigerians to be engaged in business activities, reinforce family ties, promote inter-ethnic relationship and engender unity in the country.

The impact of these efforts is lost on shallow memories of human beings because more ground still exists for stakeholders and regulatory agencies to cover the expanse of land in the country. However, we must applaud the effort being put in place to serve unserved areas in the country.

If a lot of Nigerians are keen observant of our highways, they would notice that there is more network availability along the roads especially those travelling from Lagos to Abuja even though the service providers alternate in some areas through them on and off.

Also, some of the rural areas, schools and tertiary institutions were provided with Base Transceiver Station (BTS) project, Community Resource Centre Project (CRC) E-Accessibility, Information Resource Centre, Innovative ICT Solutions & Services, School Knowledge Centre, Stakeholders’ Initiated Projects and University Intercampus Connectivity thereby improving access to ICT service in the country.

Other initiatives that stakeholders in ICT sector need to promote and ensure full implementation are development of National E-Health, improving access to education through ICTs, optimising ICT local content, use of ICT in agriculture and deployment of ICT for transport development.

The development of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) technology would tremendously improve conventional transport systems and services by making them to be safer and more effective.

In recent decades, we have witnessed tremendous expansion in application of digital skills and ICT stakeholders have to brace up and forge a partnership to project policy that would enable Nigeria to be part of the fourth industrial revolution through the implementation of Digital literacy in all the local governments of the federation.

It is no doubt that ineffective ICT infrastructure and service delivery would take us back to primitive era which Hobbes noted that human beings live in poor, nasty and brutish state. Based on the fact that nobody would prefer to live a solitary life but to enjoy life of interaction with both immediate and far relations as well as deliver services to their clients by using latest ICT infrastructures and there is the need for ICT stakeholders to double their efforts in implementing most of the policies that would improve the quality of life of our people.

The Nigerian ICT sector has recorded significant growth over the years which are as a result of deliberate policies and programmes developed by the government targeted towards the citizens of the country. The Administration of His Excellency President Muhammadu Buhari has recorded significant progress towards ensuring transparency and accountability of government by harnessing technology thereby bringing about greater citizen participation and responsiveness to government. This has helped in building a stronger relationship between the citizens and the government The Ministry of Communications in cognizance with its mandate developed an e-Government Master Plan which was recently approved by the Federal Executive Council. This plan intends to refocus the e-Government agenda for Nigeria, through a holistic and citizen centric deployment of ICT in governance rather than the individualistic approach which has been the norm. A faithful implementation by MDAs would result in improved public service delivery, with the ultimate goal of enhancing transparency and accountability of government to its publics.

•Bolajo O. Kazeem is SA (Media), Federal Ministry of Communications, Abuja.

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