The minister of communication, Hon Adebayo Shittu has identified agricultural and Information and Communication Technology as key elements for inclusive as well as progressive diversification and development of Nigeria’s economy.

He made this known in a federal communication sector retreat held at the international Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Ibadan, Oyo State.

In his speech, Barrister Shittu noted that there is need to move away from the oil generated revenue and explore other areas like; agriculture and ICT, stating that there has been development in ICT, but very uneven. He explained that one of the aims of the retreat is to come up with way to develop and maintain stable and progressive development in these sectors and also to ensure that ICT is felt in every area of the Nigerian economy.

“Some questions we must consider and answer in a bid to bring about this change include; how to build on this growth to ensure ICT reaches all areas in Nigeria, how we ensure that every Nigerian has access to ICT, how to deepen the penetration of broadband, how to improve the quality of service delivery and many more,” he noted.

The host governor, Senator Ajibola Ajimobi, who formally declared the retreat open, commended the minister for coming up with the initiative and implored Nigerians to cultivate the maintenance culture and continuity in government projects. He further stated that if properly and tenaciously implemented, ICT is bound to pave way for employment opportunities for the youth both to be employed and to be employer of labour as ICT was basically open to all.

Senator Abiodun Olujimi who represented the chairman, senate committee on communication, spoke about how the retreat was designed to set the tone for improvement, increment and progress in ICT, going by dwindling future of oil, ICT is important as another source of revenue generation, making vision 2020 a reality.

Also present at the event was Senator Abdulfatai Buhari, who noted that the Nigerian 2016 budget, which is non-oil revenue budget, stated that borrowing and tax will have to make up for the 2.2 trillion short in the bill. The Ambassador Kamanzi, representing Rwanda in Nigeria spoke about how ICT is helping in developing Rwanda.

Furthermore, Honourable Saheed Fijabi, representing North West/South West federal constituency of Oyo State stated that despite the fact that Nigeria has the highest level of “teledensity in Africa, we still have issues of poor services, dropped calls, multiple sms, unwanted caller tunes and so on,” he noted how even the parliament had embraced ICT development by adopting e-parliament, which is supposed to enhance integrity and honesty.