Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo has stated that for Nigerian companies to gain and maintain relevance in today’s industries, they need to invest in technology.
Osinbajo was quoted as saying this in a statement titled ‘Investing in technology is the way of the future, says Osinbajo.’
“Legacy and history have a powerful pull, but it might be that what the future calls for is even greater and this is why we must be investing in technology,” the statement quoted the Vice President as saying when he received a delegation of the Odu’a Investment Company at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Pushing for proper privatisation of the economy, Osinbajo stated: “if the private sector runs businesses, it is far better because it will bring greater dividends.
“The NLNG is making a lot of money because the private sector has a controlling share and is making money for the country.
“There is a need to push the model of using smart and tested people from the private sector to manage enterprises and businesses that government has an interest in.”
Tech, other drivers of Nigeria’s economy
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), in its data, disclosed that the information and communications technology (ICT) sector contributed 18.44% to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the second quarter of 2022. The sector saw a 6.55% growth rate from the first quarter of the same year.
The contribution of the oil sector, which used to dominate the country’s GDP bottom line, fell to 6.33% in Q2 2022, a position lower than its 7.42% in Q2 2021 and 6.63% in Q1 2022.
With trade coming in second to ICT and contributing 16.81% to the economy, higher than the 16.6% it recorded in 2021 when the world was just recovering from the pandemic, and the 16.13% it recorded in Q1 2022, the non-oil sector dominated the economy.
As seen in the report, the non-oil sector contributed 93.67% to the nation’s GDP in the period in review. The figure was said to be higher than 92.58% in Q2 2021 and 93.37% in Q1 2022. The non-oil sector’s contribution grew by 4.77% from the previous rate.
BizWatch Nigeria understands that the non-oil sector was driven mainly by telcos, trade, financial institutions, transportation, agriculture, and manufacturing (food, beverage, and tobacco).
