By Shuaibu Usman Muhammad
Nigeria’s former Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Ali Pantami, has called on government to prioritize the private sector by injecting friendly regulatory policies to diversify the nation’s economy.
Pantami, a professor of cyber security, opined that tax holidays and responsive regulatory framework would reshape the economic ecosystem from public-sector driven to a private-sector dependent nation.
He made the call during a special public lecture in Lafia, in honour of Governor Abdullahi Sule’s 6th year anniversary in office.
He said government can engage private sector industry players before policies are formulated and equally implemented, describing Nigeria’s situation as worrisome.
The former Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) said as a private-sector economy, the members of the industry, are not to be frustrated with static policies, advising that enabling environment should be created for economic diversification and resource maximization.
He tasked authorities to provide economic infrastructure, access to funding, skills investment through quality leadership not extravagance.
Pantami asked African leaders to get ready to face the challenges of the modern world, explaining that Africa as a populous continent, generates only 19% to global Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
While commenting on the education sector, he identified a mismatch in the nation’s educational curricula, calling for a constant review to meet up with global best practice.
He urged youth to work towards attaining success with employability skills, noting that lack of skills grows the nation’s unemployment scourge, urging youth to take up the challenge to reshape Nigerian economy.
In his remarks, Nasarawa State Governor, Abdullahi Sule, encouraged the citizens on driving a skill-based economy, adding that his administration has transformed the tertiary and secondary education sectors to skill-based sector.
Gov. Sule said the Isa Mustapha Agwai I Polytechnic Lafia and the College of Agriculture, Science and Technology Lafia can now answer their names as polytechnics where skills are learnt and skilled employees are groomed.
Delivering a welcome speech, Acting Rector of the Polytechnic, Dr. Dauda Ibrahim, told the gathering for the first time, the institution has secured accreditation for over thirty academic programmes.
He described engineering and science-related courses as a catalyst for robust and sustainable development to complement the growth of the digital economy for skills acquisition and self dependence, applauding the government for its unwavering support.
The event themed ‘Building A Digital Economy: A. A. Sule’s contribution to ICT and skills acquisition for financial independence among graduates in Nasarawa State was focused on building a resilient, virile and economically impactful economy through ICT.