The Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele has disclosed plan of the CBN and the Bankers Committee to establish an ICT training centre, which will also include an IT hub to ensure that Nigeria is well positioned to address emerging opportunities and challenges in the digital era.
Emefiele who presented a keynote address at the Creative Nigeria Summit organized by ThinkTank Media and Advertising Ltd in Lagos also disclosed plan to develop a creative industry park across three major cities in Nigeria.
“With the kind support of the Federal and Lagos State Governments, the National Theater Iganmu in Lagos is expected to serve as the initial pilot for the Creative Industries park. Our plan is to develop a 40-acre Creative Industry Park around the national theater including giving the theater itself tremendous face lift; thereby reopening the potential the National theater offered during the FESTAC 77 arts culture. Following the deployment of the pilot scheme in Lagos, we intend to set up similar parks in Kano, Port Harcourt or Enugu,” he said.
He however noted that the ICT training centre will be located in the Creative Industries Parks being established; adding that over 50,000 Nigerians are expected to benefit from the centre, which will result in creating over 25,000 software engineers and 150,000 skilled and unskilled jobs.
“It could result in potential GDP gains of close to $2bn while curbing importation of IT solutions that can be produced in Nigeria because so far over $2bn is spent annually in the acquisition of hardware and software solutions in Nigeria.”
CBN Governor further noted that the training center will enable Nigeria serve as an outsourcing center for IT services required in other parts of the globe as Nigeria can expect to earn over $200m annually from the provision of IT services to individuals and corporate organizations in other parts of the globe.
Students too he said will be provided with loan facilities to enable them obtain advanced training at the centre, on developing cutting edge technological solutions around cyber security, data analytics and cloud computing.
While he assured of CBN’s commitment to ensuring that entrepreneurs in the creative sector obtain their fair share of what is derived from their hard work, he said that they intend to curb the worrying phenomenon of piracy of movies and music by supporting the development of digital content and widely accessible platforms under which every Nigerian can purchase or rent movies/music via their mobile phones.
“We recently granted approval in principle for establishment of Payment Service Bank licenses to firms affiliated with the telecom and fintech industries. We believe this measure will help accelerate our efforts at ensuring more Nigerians have access to mobile financial services, particularly in under-served parts of the country. This will also enable Nigerians to purchase music, and movies via bank accounts linked to their mobile phones,” he said.
