Ezekwesili: I will create innovative economy
The presidential candidate of the Allied Congress of Nigeria (ACPN), Dr. Obiageli Ezekwesili, has notified Nigerians of her plans in the new year, one of which is to make Nigeria’s economy the most innovative in
the entire Africa as soon as she emerges President.
In a press statement on Tuesday, she said that if well-managed,
Nigeria’s economy would outshine that of its contemporaries in Africa.
The ACPN presidential candidate said that this was achievable through
the creation of a special fund for science and technology and
reformation of key financial institutions.
She said, “We will be creating a $1bn Science, Technology and Innovation
fund to ensure that science, technology and innovation becomes the
enabler for socio-economic development and structural transformation.
“The goal is to kick-start the process of becoming Africa’s number one
innovation and knowledge economy. ¬The STI fund will support the
building of a robust national innovation system, carry out reforms and
re-organisation of existing institutions, and fund the scale-up of Small
and Medium-scale Enterprises and start-ups in the technology space,
research and development, knowledge transfer, among others. ¬The fund
will function as a partnership between the government and the private
sector.”
Ezekwesili also said policies that would ensure increase of technology
start-ups in the country by at least 500 per cent in the next four years
would be designed and implemented.
“We will set up an Information and Communications Technology programme
with a focus on ensuring Nigerians are growing in the remote working and
outsourcing global market. ¬The plan will be to create centres of ICT
advancement in all states with a focus on an average of 10,000
developers in each state,” the presidential candidate said.
“Simultaneously, a group of technology ambassadors will be engaging
global sourcing centres, providing them with comparative advantage of
opening or expanding current operations in Nigeria. Th¬e ICT programme
will partner the private sector in investing in real estate that allows
remote tech workers involved in tech development, data science,
Artificial Intelligence and emerging technologies to comfortably work.”
Ezekwesili added, “360,000 persons will be impacted directly through this programme; N1.5m Nigerians will be indirect beneficiaries. This plan is costed at N100bn, which will be financed by the STI Fund, which is in turn financed from the oil subsidy savings.”
(NAN)
