Digital Innovation For Job Creation

The Galaxy Backbone (GBB)  Limited is strategizing  and strengthening  its capacity to create jobs for the teaming Nigerian youth  through digital innovation  especially at this critical stage in the life of Nigeria.

The GBB has in the last couple of years been innovative in this drive through various efforts within Nigeria’s  digital landscape as part of the broader agenda  in Nigeria’s  Digital Economy  sector especially the Information and Communications Technology (ICT)  to boost  the diversification agenda  of the federal government.

One of the biggest challenges  in Nigeria  today  is youth unemployment. It’s estimated that Nigeria  has nearly 40 per cent unemployment rate, which  is disturbing. However, through  meticulous plan and effective programme, the ICT sector  is engaging the youth. This can be arrested to with the recent  collaboration between GBB and Microsoft to train the youth  on capacity building and skill acquisition.

Last year  the  impact of the ICT manifested in the realisation of the $547 million from the sale of 3.5GHz spectrum to MTN and Mafab Communications for the provision of 5G network, which is a plus to the nation’s revenue drive and the GBB and other  agencies collectively  played very  significant  role in that success.

The National Shared Services Centre (NSSC) of the GBB, which was recently  commissioned by former President  Muhammadu Buhari hosts a cyber security operations centre,  network  centre and a call centre. It is the platform  for digital  connectivity for Ministries, Departments and Agencies(MDAs) to interface with the citizens.

GBB  has used this digitally  inclined  centre to build skills and capacity of Nigerians to deepen the economic diversification agenda of the government and create the needed jobs. GBB was at the centre among the agencies that  boosted the ICT and improved the country’s GDP, which according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) contributed an unprecedented 18.44 per cent to the GDP, in the Q2 of 2022 close to three times the 6.33 per cent contribution of the oil sector in the same quarter.

The GBB has also made enormous efforts  in broadband/Internet penetration, skills acquisition for global competitiveness and infrastructure development, like the fibre optic cable, which was about 15,000kms in 2015 and increased to more than 60,000kms.

The need for digital inclusion and the drive towrds the 4th Industrial Revolution  prompted the agency to  use its multi-platform ICT infrastructure  to connect over 400 Ministeries MDAs  into a “one government” network  platform  known as 1-gov.net. This is currently deploying terrestrial (fibre) broadband  connectivity  to 30 states of the federation.

Talking about Nigeria’s capacity for transformation and the drive towards the 4th  Industrial Revolution, the man leading  the innovation in GBB- the Managing Director, Prof.Muhammad Bello  Abubakar once expressed the imperative  of the 4th Industrial Revolution and Nigeria ‘s readiness to the global trend with its digital  creativity.

He  said “In today’s 4th Industrial Revolution World of rapid changes, driven by ubiquitous connectivity top the Cyber world and advanced digital technologies such as Cloud Computing, Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence Augmented Reality, Robotics etc, it is no accident that most capitalised corporation from Apple, to Google, to Amazon to Microsoft etc, are the leading enablers of the World’s digital economy. Evidently, failure to embrace the new digital age will leave a nation stuck in the sands of time.

 “It is in realisation of this fact that the federal government set up the Galaxy Backbone Limited in 2006 to drive digital inclusion in the public sector, underserved areas and other stakeholder’s communities – to complement the more significant progress in the ICT being recorded in the private sector economy.”

Despite the constraints, Galaxy Backbone has made significant  strides to inspire the confidence of its customers, including becoming the first public sector establishment  to attain the prestigious  International  Certifications that include  the ISO 27001 in information Security Management; the ISO 20000 Certification in IT Services Management as well as the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards(PCI-DSS).

The NSSC of  GBB has the capacity for Data Hosting, Collocation and Cloud Computing which has started  to place Nigeria  in a prominent position in the global digital landscape and it is hoped that Nigeria’s immense  potential  in this sector  will boost its efforts  to strengthen the ” Smart Africa” project  to digitally  connect all of Africa.