Kashifu Abdullahi, director general of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has urged non-tech micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to adopt digitalization and technology to accelerate growth.
Abdullahi who stated this during a recent visit to GIZ/DTC Nigeria office noted that by digitising their processes, MSMEs operators will boost the country’s Gross Domestic Product by N53 billion.
Citing research work, the director general said that any MSME that transforms digitally can increase its revenue by 26 per cent and cut costs by 22 per cent.
“Today the MSMEs contribute 43 per cent to Nigeria’s GDP which is about $205billion, so 26 per cent of this means $53billion, which means digitalization of our MSMEs can increase our GDP by $53 billion,” said Abdullahi who is also the chief executive of NITDA.
According to him, technology is not just an enabler for business but a strategic partner.
“Any business you do, you need technology therefore no matter what kind of business you do as MSMEs if you embrace technology, it can help you grow, scale, reduce cost and get more customer loyalty.”
Speaking on the GIZ/Digital Transformation Centre (DTC) Nigeria initiative – co-founded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the European Union and implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), he said its primary focus is on digitalisation and entrepreneurship.
He noted that the project aims to contribute to the improvement of the capacity of the Nigerian economy to implement digital innovations for growth, through supporting the digital transformation of the economy.
Also, he added that the initiative aims to improve policy implementation, the performance of organisations and networks as service providers for the digital economy, the availability of scalable digital solutions, and competence for the growth of the digital economy.
The DG who was a special guest at the Techmybiz pitch-a-thon event said the pitch competition on digital transformation will help the country grow its economy.
He noted that NITDA has been implementing its seven road maps to create an enabling environment for MSMEs to easily start and scale their businesses by adopting digitalization.
He stated that NITDA wants to achieve 95 per cent digital literacy by 2030.
“We need to train our people and harness our talents to build our digital offering in-country because technology hardly lasts more than a year.”
“If you develop a system, you have to upgrade it within a year therefore no country will survive on another country to provide digital services for it.”
He said every country needs to build in-country skills and build on digital offerings.
