Mr. Pantami, in his opening speech, on behalf of President Muhammadu Buhari, disclosed that Nigeria has been incorporated into the official partner of the World Press Center organizing the gulf information technology exhibition.
This, the minister said, was highly commendable as Nigeria is now part and parcel of the official partners of the event.
Mr. Pantami noted that the participation was to bring about Cross-fertilization of innovation and ideas.
He added that Nigeria’s team was not only in Dubai to see what was happening, but rather to ensure that the country gets more investors as well as to get technology transfer while cross-fertilizing ideas and innovations.
He said: “We have been able to come with some startups.
“I do hope that we will be able to do the same or even better than what we did last year.”
Mr. Pantami reminded that Nigeria during the 2019 GITEX won first place in the Artificial Intelligence category.
He called on the delegates and all participants from Nigeria to ensure that they maximize the benefits of participating in this event by attending all exhibitions, conferences, seminars, and many more in order to make use of any ideas shared for the benefit of Nigeria.
He recalled that Nigeria has already developed a National Digital Economy Policy and strategy for a digital Nigeria which has 8 pillars.
He said: “I hope our participation here will facilitate the implementation of all the pillars.
Pillar #1 is Developmental regulation, #2 is Digital skills, #3 is Solid infrastructures, #4 is Service infrastructure, #5 is Digital services, #6 is soft infrastructure, #7 is Digital Technology and emerging societies and #8 is Indigenous content development and promotion.
This participation, he said, would guide Nigeria in the facilitation of National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy for a digital Nigeria.
He further stated that Nigeria has started developing National Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship policy which is at an advanced stage.
According to him, Nigeria intends to come up with a policy on digital innovation and digital entrepreneurship.
These, he said, are the two prerequisites to building a digital economy for a digital Nigeria to achieve digital innovation and digital entrepreneurship.
