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'Gitex Will Attract More Foreign Investments to Nigeria'(AllAfrica Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) The organisers of GITEX, one of the biggest annual technology events holding at the World Trade Centre in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) has said the appointment of Nigeria as country partner to GITEX 2014 would attract more foreign investments to the African country. The organisers of GITEX , who gave the assurance, spoke at the recent 25th Annual Conference of the Nigeria Computer Society (NCS) in Enugu. Addressing journalists in Enugu, Commercial Director, Exhibitions & Events Management for Dubai World Trade Centre , Mr. Bilal Al-Rais, said over 4,000 exhibitors and technology investors from over 40 countries will be attending this years' exhibition and conference, explaining it will be a better opportunity for Nigeria to showcase its ideas and IT solutions that will attract foreign investors to invest in the country. The assurance is coming at a time when the federal government, through the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), is wooing foreign investors to invest in the country's broadband initiative and in other areas of technology development in the country. According to Al-Rais, "GITEX has been in existence in the last 30 years, and Nigeria attended for the first time last year, before it was invited as the country partner for GITEX 2014. GITEX will promote Nigerian IT sector and showcase Nigeria to the world, during the period." Speaking on the investment opportunities, Chairman of the Local Organising Committee that was instituted by NITDA to drive GITEX 2014, Dr. Vincent Olatunji, "We are looking at local content development in Nigeria and we are prepared to drive investment in that area. We have launched a local ICT guideline last year, and we are looking at how to drive eGovernment, eHealth through the process, and we have committed two studies in these areas," he said. According to him, IT contributed to economic growth and GDP by four per cent three years ago, and increased to six per cent two years ago. We are expecting that the contribution of IT to GDP will increase to 9 per cent after GITEX 2014. The GITEX Technology Show is slated to hold in Dubai in October this year. It is the second largest ICT event in the world and recorded over 154, 000 visitors last year alone. About 25, 000 of this figure came from Africa. NITDA is using the GITEx event to promote Nigeria's ICT potential and encourage its budding innovators to attract global attention and investors. The Director-General of NITDA, Mr. Peter Jack, had inaugurated a local organising committee for Nigeria's participation at GITEX months back to ensure speedy and focused preparations. The country is setting up the Nigerian Pavilion at the Expo and Conference to showcase the major drivers of its ICT sector including local financial institutions, solution providers and young innovators. Copyright This Day. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). |