The Nigerian government said it is giving priority and working on providing digital health solutions as a way of addressing the menace of the current Covid-19 pandemic.
The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Pantami, who stated this yesterday on the occasion of the presentation of grants to winners of the digital solutions hackathon for Covid-19 by the Nigerian Communications Commission, also stressed that the difference in making the Nigerian health sector smarter lies in innovations.
“The importance of ICT innovation accentuating solutions in the health sector, especially at this time of a global pandemic is becoming evident. Digital solutions may become the difference in making the health sector smarter in addressing the problems of the current pandemic,” he said.
While appreciating the NCC for organizing the hackathon for the Covid-19 competition, which is focused on digital solutions against the current pandemic, Dr. Pantami noted that several apps are now available to accelerate contact tracking and tracing for the ravaging Covid-19.
“I understand that the winning start-ups and Digital SMEs have come up with promising innovative digital solutions to mitigate COVID-19 health and its attendant economic dislocation that is prevalent across all nations of the globe. This is what we mean by innovation, which is a key driver to the fast growth of the global ICT industry, which in turn drives today’s global economy,” he said.
An excited Pantami also assured that the government will vigorously pursuit innovation and local content development, which is one of the surest ways to launchpad into the global digital economy valued at 11.5 Trillion US Dollars or approximately 16% of the Global Economy, according to Oxford Economics.