Private sector partnership key to local content policy success – Shittu

Ladesope Ladelokun

Minister of Communications, Adebayo Shittu has harped on the need for private sector service providers to partner the Federal Government to ensure the success of the local content programme in Nigeria. Shittu made this known at the second Annual Local Content Roundtable and Technology Fair held in Abuja on Thursday, with the theme: “The Pathway to Sustainable Digital Transformation and Economic Growth.” Speaking on the theme, he expressed the commitment of the ministry to attracting foreign and local investments through laudable initiatives that would raise the bar of development in the technology sector. The Communications Minister urged the private sector to show commitment to ensuring consumers get high-quality products and services, assuring the private sector of patronage by local consumers. Dismissing fears in some quarters that Local Content means excluding foreign participation in Nigeria ’s economy, Shittu said, ”Local content does not mean excluding foreign participation in our economy. Rather, it means concerted and collaborative efforts by all players to build a strong indigenous economy. “For instance, the win-win formula plays out in a situation where the locally assembled computers must run on Microsoft operating system and Intel processors. Meanwhile, in a related development, the Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Dr. Isa Patanmi, says the local content development policy has boosted the sales for Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs)
in Nigeria at a press conference in Abuja recently, adding that the sales by OEMs will record a geometric increase in the years ahead as NITDA will religiously follow local content guidelines. According to Patanmi, OEMs have sold 788,295 computer systems in five years. His words, “The local content policy has resulted in an exceptional increase in the patronage of locally-assembled devices. Records have shown that in 2015, indigenous Original Equipment Manufacturers sold 98, 224 devices in 2015; 154,424 in 2016; and 355,647 in 2017.”