Nigeria's Minister of Communications, Adebayo Shittu has revealed plans to release a new ICT blueprint, come January 2016.
According to Premium Times, the plan was revealed in a statement made available to the New Agency of Nigeria, which detailed plans of "transforming Nigeria's ICT sector" and making it a viable revenue stream for the nation. Said Shittu:
“We have been receiving a lot of inputs from stakeholders across the country and from Nigerians in the diaspora; some of which will form part of the details of the blueprint. We have set up two days to do a retreat in Kaduna State in January after which the blueprint will be out".
The minister further reiterated his commitment for development of the sector; “a new minister who does things the way they should be done, with a view to developing optimally the sector to generate a lot of employment in the economy,’’ he said.
Nigeria is believed to be currently undergoing an economic crisis, as global crude oil price continues to drop. As a result, the Nigerian government is constantly looking for ways to increase its non-oil revenue. By training and retraining of major experts within the sector, Shittu's proposed ICT blueprint looks to "put an end to the dependence on oil, even with the dwindling resources coming through oil."
Among other plans are the setting up of a committee of public and private sector stakeholders to advise the government on critical ICT issues.
Finally, the Minister has assured policy continuity of the National Broadband Policy, among other issues as part of the new blueprint.
