FG, World Bank, DFID to support ICT entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector can now ramp up growth plans as Nigeria’s ministry of industry, trade and investment in association with the World Bank and the UK Department for International Development (DFID), has initiated moves to support them, with a view to increasing the ICT enabled services output by $200 million annually while creating 1.3 million jobs by 2015.

The scheme through which this will happen is called the Growth and Employment (GEM) Project. The scheme will support investments in fiber-optic connectivity, ICT parks, ICT skills systems and regulatory reforms. In this project, the DFID is providing 90 million pounds as grant while the World Bank is giving $160 million as concessionary loan. 

ICT professionals desirous of benefitting from this project will only have to form a cluster (which is not necessarily limited to a particular geographical region) and identify with the GEM coordinators at the ministry of industry, trade and investment who will provide them with appropriate grant or loan. 

 ‘’We also have in our plans to support the broadband, data processing and prevent data loss,’’ said Yunusa Labaran, project coordinator, GEM, while responding to a question during a workshop in Lagos, last Wednesday.

This project aims to rejuvenate  the country’s ICT sector exactly the same way India has done in the last decade in order to rightly position the country to play a major part in the $158 billion global market in ICT outsourcing, information from the ministry shows. 

‘’Future growth is assured by strong demand for new products and technology such as mobile banking, e-commerce and improved connectivity,’’ says the ministry.

According to a statement made available to Start-Up Digest by the ministry,  the ICT sector is estimated to create 150,000 formal jobs each year, 10,000 of which are for new IT graduates. The ministry is seeking vibrant and innovative professionals to take advantage of the scheme because for any $1 million investment in ICT, there is often an estimated $2.3 million to $3.2 million further investment. 

The scheme is further geared towards increasing growth amongst at least 1,000 small and medium scale enterprises (SMES), including traders, self-employed, among others.

ODINAKA ANUDU