The federal government of Nigeria said on Thursday that it was looking at ways to stem the trend of migration of Nigerians abroad.
The government has also indicated that it will work to ensure that Nigerians are in the workforce to reduce the need to travel abroad.
The Minister of State for Science, Technology and Innovation, Henry Ikoh, made the statement in Abuja upon receiving the Secretary General of the Organization for Digital Cooperation, Ms. Deemah Yahya, who paid him a courtesy visit in connection with the upcoming Digital Nigeria Day conference.
He said the government intends to correct the trend through industrialization, which can be achieved through synergy with the DCO in the development of human capital.
His words: “Synergy is what we need, capacity building is fundamental and technology transfer is what Nigeria and Africa need now for the world to be a global village. We must work together in all areas to ensure harmony.
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“If we work together and synergize in the field of human capital development, that would ensure industrialization, if people were employed and out of poverty, then Africans and Nigerians would have no problem traveling abroad because everything is here. We have all the raw materials; What we really need in terms of digitization is for us to nurture each other’s ideas, train and retrain our employees, so things would be better.”
Yahya said the group is in Nigeria to study its digital ecosystem and understand who the players are.
She said: “We are very proud that Nigeria is a founding member of the Digital Corporation Organisation, a multilateral organization focused on promoting the digital economy in member states. We represent 12 countries on three continents with a population of 600 million and a GDP of US$2 trillion.
“We are delighted that Nigeria has been a founding member and we are here not only to reaffirm our commitment to strengthening Nigeria’s digital economic transformation strategies, but also to understand Nigeria’s ecosystem that encompasses stakeholders in terms of government, private sector and civil society. It is also up to us to understand how the DCO can help support Nigeria’s growth and, we hope, be an enabler”.
