The Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission, Umar Danbatta on Wednesday disclosed the number of jobs the telecommunication sector has provided.
Danbatta while speaking to a cross-section of stakeholders at the Cyberchain Abuja, 2022 on Wednesday said the telecommunication sector sustains 500,000 jobs.
According to Danbatta, the sector’s contribution to Gross Domestic Product had also grown from insignificance to 12.61 per cent as of the last quarter of 2021.
He further stated that the sector had attracted $70bn worth of investment to date.
Danbatta while addressing stakeholders said, “From $500m investments in the sector as of 2001, the telecommunications industry has recorded over $70bn investment till date, while the growth in the sector has been phenomenal, from some 400,000 functional phone lines in 2001 to over 209 million active mobile subscriptions, achieving a teledensity of 110 per cent, as at August 2022.
“The sector has provided over 500,000 formal and informal jobs for Nigerians. From an insignificant contribution to GDP in 2001, the telecoms sector, as of the last quarter of 2021, contributed 12.61 per cent to GDP, while the Information and Communications Technology sector as a group, has also contributed 18.44 per cent to GDP as of the second quarter of 2022.”
He added that the commission will not relent in the promotion of new and emerging technologies to energise business in the nation.
Danbatta noted that the sector is a key enabler of economic activities, transforming how people lived and worked while increasing efficiency in other sectors of the economy.
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