Pantami emerges 2020 Nigerian Muslim Personality of the Year
By Nneka Nwogwugwu
The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim also known as Sheikh Pantami has emerged the winner of the 2020 Nigerian Muslim Personality of the Year Award.
The Award which was organised by Nigeria’s Islamic newspaper, Muslim News, announced Pantami as the winner for combining two great features of leading the “digitization of the Nigerian economy” and “providing the right religious education for his teeming followers across the globe”.
In a statement released on Friday, February 19, by the newspaper’s publisher, who is also the organiser of the #MNAwards, Mr. Rasheed Abubakar, Pantami’s quest for entrenching the digital economy policy for national development as a minister and understanding of pristine Islamic knowledge as a Muslim scholar endeared the newspaper to confer the award on him.
The renowned Islamic scholar changed the face of global technological space, making headlines for his innovative ideas.
His impactful, effective and robust engagement, and exemplary leadership skills at NITDA made the president elevate him to the position of an honourable minister, with added responsibilities.
According to the statement, ‘’Dr. Pantami was sworn-in as a Minister of the Federal Republic on August 21, 2019, for the first time alongside 42 others and barely a month in office, there was re-designation of the ministry to include digital economy.
‘’ The re-designation was done to position Nigeria for the gains of the digital economy as communications captured just the channels.
Hence, the term became inadequate in describing the essence of the new vision that embraces the content, as well as the utilization of both channel and content to achieve the central focus of the ministry to migrate the nation to a digital economy.’’
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Pantami is a Ph.D. scholar in Computing & Information Systems from Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, UK.
The minister was the Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), one of the agencies under the then Federal Ministry of Communications.
Dr. Pantami was sworn-in as a Minister of the Federal Republic on August 21, 2019, for the first time alongside 42 others and barely a month in office, there was re-designation of the ministry to include digital economy.
