The U.S Government has said that Nigeria needed more international Public-Private Partnership to unleash the full potential of its digital economy.
The U.S. Consul-General to Nigeria, Will Stevens, said this during a tech policy speech and insightful fireside chat at the Lagos Business School, Lekki, Lagos.
The theme of the event was “Unleashing Potential: Thriving in the Digital Age.”
He said that without partnerships, it would be hard to unleash the incredible talents that could boost the country’s economy.
Stevens said that the U.S. government in its commitment felt an incredible responsibility to unleash the talents in Nigeria.
According to him, it’s a challenge for both the U.S. and Nigeria to figure out how to work together to produce talents, workforce and emerging sets of solutions in the heads of all young people in the country.
Stevens said it was also time to collaborate in order to find those Nigerian solutions to global problems.
“We need African solutions to global problems. We need to be harnessing the talents, solutions and an ingenuity that’s here on this continent to address some of the huge problems that are facing us around the world,” he said.
On how the country has progressed in tech, Stevens said Nigeria was already thriving in the digital age, noting that Information and Communication Technology currently accounted for 22 per cent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
He added that this was while in the fourth quarter of 2023, oil and gas accounted for less than seven per cent of Nigeria’s GDP.
The U.S. official said that this certainly had impacts on the country’s macroeconomics and monetary policy.
“Nigeria is moving very fast as ICT accounts for three times more than oil and gas, which the country supposedly has in abundance.
“The country’s ICT industry is way ahead of where it was just 10 years ago, and is having a huge impact on the global workforce,” he said.
On digital infrastructure, he said Nigeria had one of the fastest internet in the continent in Lagos and Akwa Ibom, now that both Meta and Google had landed massive undersea cables in the country.
Stevens, however, noted that more work needed to be done on digital infrastructure, so that millions of Nigerians in other states could also enjoy fast internet access like Lagos.
He added that to show that the U.S. was committed to Nigeria, a lot of U.S companies were investing and committed to the Three Million Technical Talent (3MTT) programme.
This programme, Stevens said, was a critical part of the Renewed Hope Agenda, aimed at building Nigeria’s technical talents.
He said other support from the U.S. government included programmes aimed at creating opportunities for young Nigerians to receive training and upskilling in various tech fields.
According to the consul-general, such tech fields included artificial intelligence, digital infrastructure and machine learning among others.
Also, the Dean of the Lagos Business School, Prof. Chris Ogbechie, said the digital revolution had ushered in an era of unprecedented transformation, reshaping industries, economies and societies at a very fast pace.
He said the theme of the fireside chat ‘Unleashing Potential: Thriving in the Digital Age’ could not be more timely and relevant.
Ogbechie said the dialogue would highlight opportunities for expanding our cooperation on key mutual priorities including the growth of the digital economy and emerging technologies as well as partnerships.
He noted that the partnerships would be aimed at providing an enabling environment necessary to foster a sector that contributed to a more prosperous future for Nigerians.