Event Description

Posted Mon, May 20, 2024 9:32 AM

Timeframe: Thu, May 23, 2024 1:00 PM - Thu, May 23, 2024 4:00 PM

Digital Economy Policy Commission General Assembly

Nigeria faces significant challenges in diversifying its economy away from oil dependency. With a rapidly growing population and high youth unemployment rates, there is an urgent need to create new opportunities for economic growth and job creation. Traditional sectors such as agriculture and manufacturing are struggling to absorb the workforce, making it imperative to tap into the potential of a Digital Economy to drive innovation, entrepreneurship, and productivity gains. 

Policy challenges - including outdated policies, lack of alignment, limited private sector input, lack of continuity from the public sector, inadequate funding, and a deficiency in Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) and Policy Impact Assessment (PIA) mechanisms - hinder the digital economy's growth. Nigeria's regulatory environment is marked by inconsistency, complexity, and lack of coherence, creating barriers to business growth and investment. Fragmented and outdated policies struggle to keep up with technological advancements and market changes, stifling innovation and entrepreneurship. 

Limited availability and accessibility of reliable data pose challenges to evidence-based decision-making across the talent, capital, and trade pillars of the digital economy. Inadequate data infrastructure, weak data governance frameworks, and gaps in data collection and analysis impede efforts to identify opportunities, address bottlenecks, and monitor progress towards policy objectives.  

While there are myriad challenges requiring attention, the Policy Commission has identified two (2) urgent policy reforms required to transform the digital economy sector. They include: 

1. Positioning “Digital Economy and Innovation” as the lever for Economic Transformation & Government Internal Capacity Transformation through Research, and Cross Sectoral Collaboration.  

2. Development of a harmonised policy and data-driven execution on Talent, Capital & Trade Pillars and enhancement of Data Driven Implementation and Execution of the Nigeria Startup Act and other Digital Economy Policies.  

In recognition of the need for support from sector experts, the Digital Economy Policy Commission is looking to host a General Assembly (GA) to engage experts on the proposed policy advocacy plans of the Policy Commission in 2024. The GA will provide an opportunity for new and existing members of the Policy Commission to learn about the activities of the Digital Economy Policy Commission, the agenda for the year and how to support the policy advocacy efforts of the Policy Commission. The General Assembly will also serve as a platform for agenda-setting for the year.