Senate, NITDA back digital solutions for job creation, business growth

From Okwe Obi, Abuja

The Senate and the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) have backed deployment of digital solutions to strengthen business trust, formalise Nigeria’s informal sector and expand opportunities for job creation for Nigeria’s teeming unemployed youth.

Senate Committee Chairman on Housing and Urban Development, Senator Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, who spoke yesterday in Abuja, at the unveiling of a telecommunications and business identity platform Sky ID, said the National Assembly would continue to support legislation that creates an enabling environment for technology-driven businesses and employment.

Tambuwal stated that lawmakers had a responsibility to make laws that would support initiatives capable of improving businesses and creating opportunities for Nigerians.

He said: “First and foremost, our job is primarily to make laws for the good governance and order of the country.

“We shall continue to make such laws that will enable these types of initiatives and several others that have the capabilities and ability to support Nigerians in their businesses and create jobs for our young people.”

Also speaking, NITDA Assistant Director, Dr Ahmed Yusuf Tambuwal, said digital innovation could play a significant role in transforming Nigeria’s informal sector, where a large proportion of Nigerians operate.

Tambuwal explained that digital tools could help small businesses formalise their operations, manage their businesses more efficiently and expand their customer base, giving them the capacity to pursue larger business opportunities.

He said: “I think this particular initiative is very important for the informal sector. As you are well aware, the informal sector is where the largest population of Nigerians operate.

“With this innovation, a lot of small businesses are going to be formalised. They will be able to manage their businesses better, expand their customer base and, while remaining small businesses, gain the capacity to manage bigger business opportunities.

“This is very good for the informal sector and could contribute significantly to job creation and economic growth.”

He added NITDA was supporting stakeholders in the digital economy through policies, regulations and frameworks designed to simplify participation in the sector by businesses and individuals.

“We have a number of policies and regulations aimed at simplifying how businesses and individuals can participate in the digital economy. Through our policies, regulations and frameworks, we are able to support this type of business. We actively support good initiatives such as this through partnerships, funding and many other methods,” he said.

Earlier, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of IT Sky Solutions, Almustapha Liman, said the idea behind Sky ID was driven by the need to strengthen trust and accountability in business interactions in Nigeria.

Liman said businesses and individuals needed reliable systems through which their identities could be established and verified, particularly as digital communication and transactions increasingly become part of everyday commercial activities.

He argued that the challenge was not necessarily the character of Nigerians but the absence of systems capable of encouraging accountability and discouraging abuse.

“In any society in the world, you will find the good, the bad and the ugly. But if a system is put in place that can check the activities of individuals, it can discourage people from doing what is not right,” he said.

According to Liman, the identity and verification component of the initiative could help build greater confidence among businesses and their customers while also contributing to efforts to address some of the trust and security challenges confronting business interactions.

He said the private sector also had a responsibility to contribute to the development of systems that promote trust, adding that technology should not only facilitate communication but also help strengthen relationships between businesses and their customers.

Liman linked the initiative to employment generation, saying the company had created jobs through its operations and network of channel partners.

He said about 1,000 people had been employed through the company’s operations in India, while its channel-partner network, some of which he said had between 400 and 500 workers, could potentially translate into several thousand additional jobs.

Liman said the company’s longer-term ambition was to extend the trust and verification model beyond Nigeria by developing what he described as a “social trust network across Africa.”

He said such a network could enable Africans and African businesses to communicate and transact with greater confidence across national borders.

“We are building a social trust network across Africa, whereby someone from another nation should be able to communicate or transact with another party anywhere globally,” he said.

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