Nigeria’s Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Professor Isa Pantami, is taking steps towards strengthening partnerships across the globe that would engender the development of the country’s digital economy. The Minister as part of efforts to achieve this, held series of meetings at the World Bank headquarters, Google Corporation and another one at the Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (Space X) headquarters in Hawthorne, California.

It was learnt that the meetings with the World Bank and Google were held on the side-lines of the US-Africa Leaders’ Forum (USALF), which took place in Washington DC, United States of America, while the visit to Space X was a follow up to the events at the USALF.

He was received at Space X by the Vice President of Business Operations, Samuel (Chad) Gibbs IV, on behalf of Elon Musk, Founder and CEO of Space X. At the visit, both parties discussed how Space X can expand its presence in Nigeria, following their entry into the Nigerian market through the Starlink broadband service. 

The Minister also asked the Space X team to consider sourcing some of its Engineers from Nigeria’s digital talent pool.  During the visit, the Minister and his team were given a personalised tour of the Space X Rocket manufacturing facility, Starlink Assembly Line, and product development Facility.  He also witnessed the live Space X rocket launch of two telecom satellites into orbit.

On the invitation of the World Bank Group, the Minister had a meeting with top officials of the bank, including the Practice Manager for the World Bank’s Identification for Development (ID4D) Vyjayanti Desai, and Digitising Government to Person Payments (G2Px) Programs. 

Also at the meeting were Director of Infrastructure, World Bank West African Region, Franz Drees-Gross, and World Bank’s Digital Development Practice Manager for Africa and the Middle East Michel Rogy.  The World Bank team commended the Minister for his great leadership, which has led to significant development in Nigeria’s digital economy sector. The meeting also discussed how the bank can further partner Nigeria to strengthen the digital economy ecosystem in areas such as infrastructure, skilling, cybersecurity, and digital identity.

Pantami also had a meeting with Vice-President, Government Affairs, and Public Policy at Google, Karan Bhatia. Mr. Bhatia was full of praises for the Minister for the significant progress that has been made in the digital transformation of the Nigerian economy.

He also commended the Minister for Nigeria’s Startup Act, noting that the legislation has the potential to serve as a catalyst for rapid development of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Nigeria and other parts of Africa.  The Google Vice-President discussed the company’s growing focus on Africa and looks forward to expanding partnerships with Nigeria in areas such as skilling, cybersecurity, and cloud computing, among others.

Recall that the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, under Pantami has remained committed to implementing the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy NDEPS in order to ensure that Nigeria’s digital economy remains a leading light, both in Africa and all over the world.