‘I was appointed as an ICT ignorant’- Communications Minister

The Minister of Communications, Barr. Adebayo Shittu despite claiming to have come into the Ministry of Communications as a completely Information and Communications Technology ignorant person said he has been able to set a roadmap that would ostensibly catapult the growth of the industry in less than one year since his appointment.

Shittu affirmed that the roadmap would champion some of the needs of the industry and expand financial inclusion, which will ultimately revitalize the operations of the agencies under the Ministry and make them more of a revenue generating agency.

“I came into office as a complete IT ignorant person. I was simply a lawyer and a politician and I must say I didn’t expect to be assigned the Ministry of Communications because, to be honest I had no idea what it was about. As somebody who knew next to nothing about IT, my best option was to listen, learn, collaborate and support industry stakeholders as much as I could because I saw myself as coming in to serve the industry and not as a boss,” the Minister said.

He added that one of the first things he did was to organise a stakeholder’s retreat, which was hosted in Ibadan, where all the players in the industry, both the organised private sector and the public were invited to make inputs on how best to get a roadmap for the industry.

The policy roadmap, he said has been presented to the Federal Executive Council for consideration and endorsement.

“Once we get the endorsement of the Federal Executive Council, it would then become a national policy and roadmap for the industry. If we are able to achieve 50 percent of the roadmap, Nigeria would be able to move from where it is now to where it ought to be,” he added.