The Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission, Prof. Umar Danbatta, has stated that the telecommunication sector sustains 500,000 jobs.

He added that the sector’s contribution to Gross Domestic Product had also grown from insignificance to 12.61 per cent as at the last quarter of 2021, noting that the sector had attracted $70bn worth of investment till date.

He disclosed this while speaking to a cross section of stakeholders at the Cyberchain Abuja, 2022.

He said, “From $500m investments in the sector as at 2001, the telecommunications industry has recorded over $70bn investment till date, while the growth in the sector has been phenomenal, from some 400,000 functional phone lines in 2001 to over 209 million active mobile subscriptions, achieving a teledensity of 110 per cent, as at August 2022.

“The sector has provided over 500,000 formal and informal jobs for Nigerians. From an insignificant contribution to GDP in 2001, telecoms sector, as at the last quarter of 2021, contributed 12.61 per cent to GDP, while the Information and Communications Technology sector as a group, has also contributed 18.44 per cent to GDP as at the second quarter of 2022.”

According to Danbatta, despite the strides the commission has made, it would not relent in the promotion of new and emerging technologies to energise business in the nation. He said the sector was a key enabler of economic activities, transforming how people lived and worked while increasing efficiency in other sectors of the economy.