Nigeria's ambition is to digitize its whole public sector and boost internet access across the country. For that purpose, it is building relationships with countries that share the same goals.
Nigeria's Vice President Yemi Osinbajo (photo, left) recently started a working visit to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. On Monday, December 5, 2022, he was welcomed by his Vietnamese counterpart, Madam Võ Thị Ánh Xuân (photo, right), at the Presidential Palace in Hanoi.
During that welcome meeting, the two parties signed a defense cooperation agreement and expressed their commitment to strengthening their long-standing bilateral relations by working together in the areas of the digital economy, and telecommunications, among others.
According to Prof. Osinbajo, “there are vast opportunities that exist for cooperation and collaboration, especially in the area of digital economy and telecoms.”
“We look forward to accelerating the process, ensuring that those agreements are signed because they are vital to the collaborations that we will see between our countries in the coming years,” he added.
Both countries have great potential in the digital economy and telecommunications in their respective continents. In its report "E-Government Survey 2022 The Future of Digital Government", the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) said that Vietnam ranks 86th out of 193 countries with a high e-government index. Nigeria ranks 140th in the world with an average e-government index.
The bilateral collaboration they plan to strengthen will therefore enable Nigeria to benefit from Vietnam's extensive experience in digitizing services, deploying telecommunication services, and profit Nigerians, who will benefit from public e-services.
“We have close 120 million of our citizens who have put to use telecoms equipment or devices. And also, broadband connectivity is vastly improved. We hope that by 2025, we will have broadband connectivity for all of our over 200 million people,” Prof. Osinbajo said.
Samira Njoya
