The capital flight in Nigeria’s telecommunications sector is as high as $2.16bn annually, the Federal Government has declared.
Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, made the declaration at the Digital Nigeria Day, quoting a report of the Association of Telecommunication Companies of Nigeria.
Pantami stated that to stem the trend of capital flight, the government had developed a policy to promote indigenous content.
The minister explained that there was an urgent need to promote the development of indigenous content in every sector of the economy.
He said the Indigenous Content Development and Adoption pillar was addressing this for the digital economy.
Pantami said it aligned with the order on Planning and Execution of Projects, Promotion of Nigerian Content in Contracts and Science, Engineering and Technology.
The minister also noted that the solid infrastructure arm of the digital economy policy would address the need to provide broadband access and data centres required to enable citizens to access the digital solutions.
He said the Nigerian National Broadband Plan (2020-2025) was developed to accelerate the growth of broadband connectivity across the country. He said the government also approved the designation and protection of relevant telecommunications infrastructure across the country as critical national infrastructure.
