The Managing Director of Ericsson Nigeria, Mr. Johan
Jemdahl has called on the federal government to empower citizens with
technology as a viable pathway towards increasing the Nation’s GDP and as a way
of cushioning the effect of recession.
Mr. Johan during an interview with THISDAY made it
known that the government needs to speed up plans to empower her citizens with
technology, saying a lot of countries that passed through recession in the past
were able to conquer it through technology advancement.
"If you take a look at Nigeria's GDP, you will
discover that Information and Communications Technology (ICT) is a major
contributor to GDP. There is need for increased mobile banking, financial
inclusion, and connectivity. If people are connected with their devices, they
will not feel the impact of recession. This is true because connectivity gives
access to the internet and there are lots of things Nigerians could do on their
own when connected to the internet, without relying on government," Johan
said.
“So what government needs do in the time of recession
is to empower its citizens technologically and allow the citizens to drive the
economy, especially the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs),” Johan added.
He explained that technology empowerment is crucial
to economic development because it will further ease the business processes of companies especially SME’s, hence increasing
the rate of employment and the scale of manufacturing through which
international trade can grow and develop the countries Forex.
"Once Nigeria begins to exchange goods and
services with foreign currencies like the dollar, the economy will quickly
bounce out of recession. If people are empowered, they become creative on their
own and creativity is what is driving developed economies of the world and
creativity is exactly what helped most developed countries to go out of recession
fast at the time when they witnessed recession," he explained.
He equally advised government to make broadband
connectivity available and affordable to Nigerians to improve productivity and
creativity in the area of innovation that will in turn promote the country’s
economic development.
“Nigeria should begin to move to a more
knowledge-based economy and make broadband available and affordable for all its
citizens. We need broadband connectivity in this country. Although government
is trying to increase broadband penetration in the country, but this has to be
done fast because connectivity is key to speedy economic development.
Nigerians are technology savvy people and the sure
way out of recession, is to empower the people technologically, because
empowerment will lead to better and informed decision making,” Johan said.
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