Business
ICT start-ups contributed $101m to Nigerian economy in nine months
The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has said that startups in the information technology sector contributed $101 million to the Nigerian economy in the first three quarters of 2018.
This was disclosed by the Director General of NITDA, Dr Isah Ibrahim, during a pitch by new ICT companies at a programme tagged Start-up Friday in Abuja.
The programme, organised by the NITDA, was meant to galvanise innovations in the ICT sector.
According to Ibrahim, start-ups in the industry contributed a total of $9m to the economy in the first three months of the year. The contribution of the start-ups went up to $57m in the second quarter but dipped to $35m in the third quarter of the year.
He said: “With the little efforts we have put in place, a lot has been achieved in the ICT sector today. In the case of our ICT start-ups, within the first quarter of 2018, start-ups generated $9m; in the second quarter, they generated $57m and recently in the third quarter, they generated $35m.
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“This is only within 2018. This achievement is unprecedented in the history of ICT sector in Nigeria.”
The NITDA boss further disclosed that the patronage of locally manufactured IT products and services had increased as a result of the implementation of buy Nigeria policy articulated by the Federal Government.
The NITDA boss said the agency had to report some defaulting agencies to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, adding that after EFCC had grilled some defaulting heads of MDAs, government purchase of locally made ICT products and services witnessed a tremendous increase.
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