The Federal Government on Thursday said it was seeking ways to end the trend of Nigerians relocating abroad.
The government also noted that it would work towards ensuring Nigerians were gainfully employed to discourage the need to travel abroad.
The Minister of State for Science, Technology and Innovation, Henry Ikoh, made the statement in Abuja while receiving the Secretary-General of the Digital Cooperation Organisation, Ms Deemah Yahya, who paid him a courtesy visit in connection with the upcoming Digital Nigeria Day Conference.
He said the government intended to correct the trend through industrialisation, which could be achieved by synergising with the DCO in the area of human capital development.
His word: “The synergy is what we require, capacity building is key and technology transfer is what Nigeria and Africa in particular needs at the moment so that the world can be a global village. We need to collaborate in all areas to ensure harmony.
”If we collaborate and synergise in the area of human capital development, it would guarantee industrialisation, when people are gainfully employed and moved out from poverty, then Africans and Nigerians would not be struggling to travel abroad because everything is here. We have all the raw materials; what we really require in terms of digitalisation is for us to cross fertilise ideas, train and retrain our people then things would be better.”
Yahya said the group was in Nigeria to understudy her digital ecosystem and understand who the players were.
She said, “We are very proud that Nigeria is a founding member of the Digital Corporation Organisation, which is a multilateral organisation that focuses on advancing the digital economy in member states. We represent 12 countries, from three continents, representing 600 million in population and $2 trillion in the GDP.
“We are very happy that Nigeria has been a founding member and we are here not only to reiterate our commitment to empowering digital economic transformation strategies of Nigeria but also to understand the ecosystem of Nigeria, being the players in terms of government, private sector, and civil society. It is also for us to understand how the DCO can help support the growth of Nigeria and hopefully be an enabler.”
The PUNCH reports that there has been an increase in the rate of migration of Nigerians to other countries.