The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Pantami has disclosed the Ministry has been able to generate a whooping One trillion, 54 billion Naira as revenue for the Federal Government through the implementation of various policies, initiatives and interventions.
Dr. Pantami, who disclosed during the virtual commissioning of the 12th batch of the Digital Economy Projects for a Digital Nigeria at the Digital Economy Complex, Mbora, Abuja, noted that such policies, initiatives and interventions include economic diversification, enhanced security and anti-corruption.
“The Ministry and its parastatals have generated over N1 Trillion for the Federal Government in less than 2 years, this translates to an average of about N44 Billion every month or over N1.4 Billion every day,” he revealed.
A breakdown of these revenues indicates that about N360 Billion was largely from Spectrum allocated by the National Frequency Management Council (NFMC), under the Chairmanship of the Minister, to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) for commercial purposes. He also added that over N600 Billion was paid by ICT Companies to the account of the Federal Government through the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS).
Furthermore, over Ninety-Four Billion Naira (N94,000,000,000) was generated for the Federal Government and approved by the National Assembly in line with relevant laws, as part of the 2020 appropriation for personnel, capital projects, capacity building and interventions.
The IT Projects Clearance Programme also saved over Five Billion Naira (N5,478,007,325.23) for the Federal Government.
Meanwhile, according to Pantami, within his two years tenure as Minister, 16 National policies have emerged, which includes; the National Digital Economy Policy & Strategy (NDEPS); Roadmap for the Implementation of the NDEPS; the Nigerian National Broadband Plan 2020-2025; Sim Card Registration Policy; National Policy on Digital Identity for Internally Displaced Persons in Nigeria; National Policy on VSAT Installation Core Skills for Nigerians, amongst many others that have been developed and implemented as against just one policy he inherited on assumption into the office.