Digital Economy: Osinbajo Speaks On The Need For African-European Nations Synergy

The Vice President of Nigeria, Professor Yemi Osinbajo has expressed the need for both African and European nations to work together to advance and harvest the economic benefits of digital economy, and also prevent a counter-productive widening of the digital gap.

The vice president’s spokesman, Laolu Akande, in a statement in Abuja said Osinbajo spoke on Tuesday at the Africa-Europe High-Level Forum in Vienna, Austria, which had in attendance other African and European Heads of States and Governments.

VP Osinbajo at Africa Europe High Level Forum, Vienna discussing Digitial Technology. He calls for effective collaboration btw Africa & Europe both in education especially in digital skills and providing funding for "many young Nigerians & Africans doing incredible things in tech pic.twitter.com/9eo2F4GuvI

— Laolu Akande (@akandeoj) December 18, 2018

Naija News recalls the meeting organised by the European Union (EU) and African Union (AU) was held in Vienna, Austria from Dec. 17 to Dec. 18.

Speaking on the theme of the forum, “Taking Cooperation to the Digital Age”, the vice president said that investments in digital technology could make important contribution to growth and development by fostering productivity gains from continuous innovation.

“Given our fast-growing population in Africa, we are of course keen to work together to boost the job creation potential of new technologies rather than concentrating on jobs destined to disappear in the digital age.

“Faster growth, sustainable development and job creation are also vital for reducing irregular migration from Africa to Europe. In our globalised world, people can see disparities in standards of living across regions quite easily.

“This means there must be increasing openings for entrepreneurship and jobs in home countries for those who would otherwise embark on risk journeys in search of opportunities.

“In Nigeria, we are taking urgent and practical steps to provide such opportunities for our rapidly increasing youth population.”

Osinbajo also highlighted the strides made by the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration in developing Nigeria’s technology sector through supporting public-private sector initiatives and the advisory group on technology and creativity.

https://twitter.com/MrDavidJoelAli/status/1075015438503960576

He said that the advisory group had been working to build an ecosystem for funding, training, infrastructure and intellectual property protection.

The vice president added that Nigeria’s Social Investment Programme had been leveraging on technology tools to drive it in its bid to improve the economy as well as lives of Nigerians.

“Under our social investment programme, 75,000 young people are being trained in coding, software development, hardware maintenance, animation and data management, and we’re set to train another 200,000 young men and women.

“Similarly, we have established eight technology hubs to support tech startups across our six geopolitical zones and two major cities of Abuja and Lagos.

“We have encouraged partnership to establish venture funds to support innovation and are now engaged in talks to establish a 500 million dollars innovation funds with bilateral and multilateral partners.

“We will be deploying digital methods and tools on a larger scale to expand learning opportunities for younger Nigerians, as conventional education through brick and mortar institution can no longer be viable given the huge numbers and limited resources.

“Already, 200,000 out of our 500,000 young graduates in our N-Power scheme have tablet devices, which we use for on-the-job training and further skills acquisition.

“This experience will guide our efforts as we seek to expand digital literacy at earlier stages of education.

“Similarly, our education curriculum is being reworked to emphasise Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics. The Arts have been included because of the growing recognition of the strengths of our country, especially in the arts, music, film and literature.”

With Vice President Prof Osinbajo GCON attending the Africa Europe High level Forum in Vienna. Discussions about taking Africa Europe cooperation to the digital age.

The leaders from Africa and Europe affirmed to cooperate in the development of the two continents. #Eu2018at pic.twitter.com/Pl9DyVton6

— Ambassador Vivian Okeke (@AmbVivianOkeke) December 19, 2018

Osinbajo also highlighted the growth in e-commerce in Nigeria, with references to leading e-commerce platforms that had leveraged on technology to grow their businesses.

According to him, financial technology is being used in efforts to rapidly scale up financial inclusion.

He also commended the work of Nigerians in Diaspora, adding that the Nigerian community was adding value to the country. The meeting was attended by leading members of the Nigerian community in Vienna.