Government to support innovative youths, prioritise ICT for development

The Minister of Communications, Adebayo Shittu, has assured innovative youths and individuals of Federal Government’s support. He noted that his ministry was prioritising Information and Communications Technology (ICT) as tool for development and efficient governance.

“The ministry will be willing to give maximum support to any organisation or person that comes up with innovations,” he said.

The minister, who was speaking yesterday in Abuja at the official launch of e-vendor, the digital version of 11 Nigerian newspapers, noted that the initiative was capable of boosting the nation’s foreign exchange since many citizens abroad, researchers as well as analysts and foreign investors can now read Nigeria directly rather than depend on social media.

Represented by his Special Adviser, Hakeem Yusuf, the minister said: “The PDF newspaper supports our mandate to ensure that ICT is used as a vehicle of change to enhance quality and cost effectiveness of public service delivery in Nigeria. It helps to create a convenient archive for research purposes.”

Earlier, Executive Director of e-vendor, Anthony Oni, said the subscription-based service, which began in 2015, provides the complete version of the newspapers, including announcements and advertisements, to subscribers.

He noted that the platform costs less than the hardcopy and affords a subscriber the opportunity of keeping his/her archive in digitally accessible format free from infernos and other unforeseen disasters.

His word: “The world is shifting towards the paperless divide so as to ensure that spending on physical papers is greatly reduced. The PDF newspaper provides full contents of the newspaper in a way that online news services are unable to. Now Nigerians can access their favourite newspapers when outside the country as well as perform keyword search for items that tickle their fantasy.”

Oni noted that the service would greatly benefit individuals, organisations, MDAs as well as research institutes and libraries.

On concerns that the service might get vendors out of business, he said a provision allowing they to sell e-newspapers through tablets and other appliances was keyed into the project.