National Digital Economy Policy will diversify Nigerian economy away from oil

Following the re-designation of the Federal Ministry of Communications as the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy (FMoCDE) on October17, 2019, Abuja based Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) Mr. Oyetola Muyiwa Atoyebi, examines Nigeria’s Digital policy and states that this is in line with the vision of President Muhammadu Buhari’s vision to diversify the economy of Nigeria away from dependence on the Oil and Gas Sector.

INTRODUCTION

The National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy has been developed to reposition the Nigerian Economy to take advantage of then numerous opportunities that digital technologies provide. This is in line with the vision of President Muhammadu Buhari to diversify the economy of Nigeria away from dependence on the Oil and Gas Sector. The growth of the Digital Technology Sector over the past few years is a good indication that this sector can serve as a catalyst for the rapid development of the economy. President Buhari approved the re-designation of the Federal Ministry of Communications as the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy (FMoCDE) on October 17, 2019.

This has clearly positioned Nigeria as early adopters of digital technology and it gives us a good opportunity to become major participants in the growing global digital economy.

The world now is going digital and major economic activities are done online. Most buying and selling and other economic activities are now done online. The economy of the world is already undergoing transformations.

In essence, Digital Economy is the economic activity that results from billions of everyday online connections among people, businesses, devices, data, and processes.

For example, buying and selling are done by e-commerce, payments are being made by online transfers and online banking and a lot of economic activities are now done online. This research work will examine digital economy alongside digital banking which forms part of the digital economy.

DIGITAL ECONOMY AND THE BUSINESS OF BANKING

The digital economy has been defined in many ways by various individuals and institutions. The European Commission defines the digital economy as an economy that “encompasses businesses that sell goods and services via the internet, and digital platforms that connect spare capacity and demand”. The World Economic Forum and the Group of Twenty (G20) defines the digital economy as “a broad range of economic activities comprising all jobs in the digital sector as well as digital occupations in non-digital sectors”.

Digital economy is one that is based on digital technologies. Interestingly, the digital economy is very much intertwined with the traditional economy, and this has impacted all the pillars of economy existent in Nigeria with the inclusion of finance.

Digital economy in the financial world especially banking, seeks to proffer digital networking and communication infrastructure to provide a global platform over which people and organizations can perform financial activities with ease.The financial pillar of digital economy also utilizes a broad range of technological infrastructure and knowledge. This in turn creates benefits and efficiencies and also fuels economic growth.  Nigeria has the potential to explore its digital financial ventures beyond its borders. This is mainly because digitalization has come to play a very crucial role. For instance, digital banking brings a world of opportunities to address pressing issues in access to finance both in relation to retail banks and Financial Technology (fintech) platforms in Nigeria. Many banks in Nigeria have also engaged digital technologies in their activities for the purpose of solving issues in an exciting, modern, and faster way. Digital innovation in banking is one of the solutions to the problems of access to finance in Nigeria.  Several banks have incorporated these innovations via mechanisms such as mobile…