Federal Government plans to create about two million jobs within the next six months through the Information and Communications Technology sector of the economy. Minister of Communications, Mr. Adebayo Shittu, disclosed this at a reception in his honour held by the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria, ATCON in Lagos. He called on corporate organizations and key stakeholders in the ICT sector to come up with ideas and proposal that would fasttrack the creation of the jobs in the sector.

According to the minister, who flew into Lagos at the weekend shortly after attending an emergency Federal Executive Council meeting where the ministers were briefed on the details of the 2016 budget, the government is ready to support any idea or proposal that will provide jobs for the increasing number of unemployed youths in the country.

He disclosed that government will leverage more on the communication technology sector to solve the problem of unemployment in the country because the revenue from the oil and gas sector has been on a steady decline since early 2015. Shittu also said the Federal Government plans to convert the Digital Bridge Institute in Lagos into a multi-campus ICT University to boost ICT skills in the country and provide jobs.

He said government is bothered about the challenge of coming up with policies that will rapidly build Nigeria’s capacity to compete effectively with other economies in the ICT world, adding that without a solid telecommunications infrastructure, the country will not attract the needed local and foreign investment to build the economy.

He told the stakeholders which was up of chief executive officers of telecoms companies in Nigeria that government is concerned about the high patronage of imported ICT equipment, saying it was sad to note that the country was losing $2.8 million yearly to imported ICT goods and services. Shittu lashed out at the stakeholders for not paying their taxes as demanded by law, stressing that discovery has been made by a consultant working for government that most telecoms companies are not paying their due.

He further stated that government was displeased with the charges for unsolicited services imposed on Nigerian subscribers, adding that mobile network operators must as a matter of urgency tackle the issue of spam messages.