2019 Polls: Ezekwesili Pledges Innovative Economy For Nigeria
BY COBHAM NSA, ABUJA – The Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN) has promised to make Nigeria’s economy the most inventive in Africa if its Candidate, Dr Obiageli Ezekwesili is elected President on February 16, 2019
According to the Party, Dr Ezekwesili is assuring Nigerians of her commitment to promote a well-oiled and managed national economy that will outshine its contemporaries across the continent.
In her New Year statement on Tuesday, the ACPN flag-bearer also proposed a N100 billion Fund for Information and Communications Technology (ICT) programme that will help Nigerians to grow and become competitive in the remote working and outsourcing global market.
She said this breakthrough is achievable through the creation of a special fund for science and technology as well as reformation of key financial institutions in the country.
The former Minister of Education said; “We will be creating a $1bn Science, Technology and Innovation fund to ensure that science, technology and innovation becomes the enabler for socio-economic development and structural transformation.
“The goal is to kick-start the process of becoming Africa’s number one innovation and knowledge economy. The STI fund will support the building of a robust national innovation system, carry out reforms and re-organisation of existing institutions, and fund the scale-up of Small and Medium-scale Enterprises (SMEs) and start-ups in the technology space, research and development, knowledge transfer, among others.”
She explained that her administration would institute a workable plan for the fund to “function as a partnership between the government and the private sector.”
Ezekwesili, popularly called ‘Madam Due Process’ during her days in government, also promised to design and implement policies aimed at enhancing increased technology start-ups in the country by at least 500 per cent in the next four years. The ACPN presidential candidate said; “We will set up an Information and Communications Technology programme with a focus on ensuring Nigerians are growing in the remote working and outsourcing global market. The plan will be to create centres of ICT advancement in all states with a focus on an average of 10,000 developers in each state.
“Simultaneously, a group of technology ambassadors will be engaging global sourcing centres, providing them with comparative advantage of opening or expanding current operations in Nigeria. The ICT programme will partner the private sector in investing in real estate that allows remote tech workers involved in tech development, data science, Artificial Intelligence and emerging technologies to comfortably work.”
Dr Ezekwesili further hinted that; “360,000 persons will be impacted directly through this programme; N1.5m Nigerians will be indirect beneficiaries. This plan is costed at N100bn, which will be financed by the STI Fund, which is in turn financed from the oil subsidy savings.”
