Federal Govt Targets $53bn From MSMEs’ Digitisation

The director general of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) Kashifu Inuwa has said that digitisation of Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) will contribute $53 billion to the Nigerian economy.

According to a statement issued on Friday by the NITDA boss stated this while delivering an opening remark at TechMyBiz Pitch-A-Thon event in Lagos held at the Digital Transformation Center Nigeria (DTC Nigeria).

Inuwa noted that the digitisation will also increase Nigeria’s revenue by 26 per cent as well as reduce operating cost by 22 per cent, stressing that SMEs make up a huge percentage of businesses and economic growth in the country.

The TechMyBiz Pitch-a-thon was jointly funded by the European Union (EU) and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and is a process of selecting Digital Innovations in Africa.

 It started with a “Call for Digital Solutions” a campaign that offered a platform for many innovators, entrepreneurs and startups within the Nigerian ecosystem to register their already created digital solutions, from which 30 are expected to emerge as winners out of the 50 selected for the Pitch-a-thon event running from the 12th -14th July 2023.

The DG noted that, “digitisation is about operational excellence, using technology as an enabler for business efficiency, more productivity, increased revenue and cost savings.”

He said despite the available opportunities, there are challenges that need to be addressed in order to realise the potential of digital transformation in SMEs.

“Firstly, we need to create innovation-friendly conditions in our country in terms of enabling policies and laws, government services, ease of doing business, and so on.”

“Secondly, we need to have support organisations — platform that will assist to digitise MSMEs for innovation hubs around the country to incubate ideas, because innovation is a process of taking an idea from inception to impact that means you can have an idea, and you can be innovative, but that is not enough, you need to commercialise your ideas.”

“Then we need the infrastructure, this is important to MSMEs, but Africa is lacking in digital public infrastructure. Digital public infrastructure is beyond having connectivity and access to computers. 

“The Second Industrial Revolution was about massive production which requires enabling infrastructure for transportation, but today we are in the fourth Industrial Revolution, which is about digital services, therefore, we need the required infrastructure to aid digital services.”

“Lastly is the challenge of digital skills and literacy. The digital offerings require digitally literate consumers to benefit from the services, therefore there is the need to enlighten and educate the populace to acquire digital literacy skills,” he said.