Vice President, Senator Kashim Shettima has said that Nigeria will leverage its relationship with China to adopt programs that will improve the country’s digital space, among other benefits.

Shettima spoke at the High-Level Forum at the ongoing 3rd Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing, China.

He said that Nigeria is keen on using the instrumentality of the existing robust Nigeria-China bilateral relations to maximally key into projects under the platform of the Digital Silk Road for the improvement of our digital space.

The Vice President also highlighted the role of digital economy in accelerating global economic growth and recovery, noting that digital economy has guaranteed the emplacement of mechanisms to ease the process of engaging in trans-border trade and e-commerce, amongst many other advantages.

He recommended that as the world emerges from the global economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, there is crucial need for developing economies to employ digital transformation practices in aspects of manufacturing, agriculture, retail, human capacity building as well as medical and healthcare in order to achieve any meaningful and sustainable development.

Senator Kashim Shettima commended China for introducing the Digital Silk Road as a vehicle for achieving international economic cooperation beyond geographical borders.

Speaking about Nigeria’s efforts in leveraging the digital space to create jobs and diversify the economy, Shettima said that Nigeria has recorded a number of achievements including a digitalized public service, developed banking and e-payment systems, electoral reforms through the introduction of the electronic registration of voters and e-transmission of votes, thus creating ripple effects of job creation and human capacity building opportunities for our teeming youth population.

He added that the Federal Government has recently unveiled the new strategic blueprint, accelerating our collective prosperity through technical, as part of the Federal Government’s initiative to accelerate the diversification of the Nigerian economy by enhancing productivity in critical sectors through technological innovation.

The Vice President said that through this strategic blue print, the Federal Government aims to achieve three key objectives namely: Accelerate the growth of Nigeria as a global technical talent hub and net exporter of talent.

One of the goals of this talent hub is to train three million early to mid-career technical talents throughout the next four years (2022-2027); Deepen and accelerate’its position in global research in key technology areas; and Raise the complexity and dynamics of Nigeria’s economy by significantly increasing the level of digital literacy across the country.