The Nigerian Information and Communication Technology sector has seen boisterous growth in the last decade. According to recent reports by the National Bureau of Statistics. The ICT sector contributed 18.44% to the country’s GDP growth in Q2 2022, and experts believe that this is due to Nigeria’s largely youthful population being the driving force for the growth in the ICT sector due to the demand for ICT products and services.
However, just as other sectors in Nigeria experience certain challenges so also the ICT sector in Nigeria suffers several challenges on its part such as reliable and affordable electricity, multiple taxations, regulatory bottlenecks, limited access to ICT infrastructure in rural areas, and a dearth of skilled ICT professionals but this sector records significant growth and continues to play a major role in the country’s development.
But in 2023, the ICT sector is expected to do better than the previous year in terms of efficiency as there will be increased adoption of cloud computing which is one of the potential trends that may shape the development of ICT.
The e-commerce industry of Nigeria is also expected to grow in 2023 due to Nigeria’s large and rapidly growing population and the adoption of mobile devices and internet access has made e-commerce more accessible due to the improvements in electronic payment and logistics sectors.
This development will be driven by the expansion of mobile broadband which will enable the continuous propagation of the mobile network solution in Nigeria, driven by the increasing demand for data services and the roll-out of 4G and 5G networks.
It also promising in the Nigerian telecommunications sector as there will be improved access to 5G services, as it is already known that the Nigerian Communications Commission in 2021 granted 5G licenses to MTN Nigeria and Mafab Communications, with Airtel joining the party last year December. It is expected that these telecom giants will roll out 5G services just as MTN has done in several major cities.
The fintech sector which covers businesses focused on mobile payments, digital banking, merchant solutions, and personal finance among others, is one other sector that is experiencing huge development due to the driven impact by the youth population will also experience more in the new year. This trend is likely to continue as more people turn to digital financial services as reports from 2022 indicate that over 200 Fintech firms in Nigeria rapidly helping to bridge the financial inclusion gap.
Social media was abuzz when ChatGPT was discovered in late 2022, reports indicate huge development in the AI sector but what improvement is expected in 2023 for artificial intelligence? It is expected that there will increase in the use of AI in various sectors, including healthcare, education, and agriculture across the globe, and Nigeria is also expected to increase the use of AI with the adoption of AIs such as ChatGPT and others to leverage to solve problems and improve services. Nigeria is already seeing some early players such as Lare Ayoola’s IoT Africa Networks Limited, Kobo360, and Data Scientists Network.
Another sector that is expected to grow in 2023 is the outsourcing industry. Nigeria is blessed with highly educated and intelligent individuals and therefore our workforce and lower labor costs keep attracting a lot of attention for outsourcing. This trend is likely to continue as companies look to outsource certain business functions to save costs, improve productivity and boost profitability, especially with the increased interest in digital and tech skills, the ICT sector continues to grow, thereby prompting greater demand for individuals with digital skills.
It is expected that this interest will lead to the increased development of training programs and initiatives to help people acquire the necessary skills. The National Information Technology Development Agency recently deployed programs through training one million developers with a focus on Python for machine learning and data science its subsidiary, the National Center for Artificial Intelligence & Robotics.
Truly, ICT will always remain a significant part of the global economy in the foreseeable future and it will continue to experience development in human capacity and the infrastructure sector.
