The Importance Of ICT To National Development

Information and Communications Technology (ICT) has very important roles to play in our country, to bring about improved social and economic development such as generating higher employment and productivity as well as improve higher quality of lives, public health and education and surveillance in Nigeria.

The numerous benefits Nigeria can derive from the maximum utilization of  ICT for national development are as follow:

1. The use of ICT will help to solve unemployment problem in the country to a large extent. More and more youths will be gainfully employed because of lots of advantages of economic potentials such as enabling millions of transactions to take place in an easy and fast way.
2. The use of ICT will also help to improve our educational system by adding value in teaching and learning, enhancing the effectiveness of learning and adding innovations to our learning standard that were hitherto not available. This will be a strong motivational factor in the country’s learning process for better educational achievement or better results.
3. The use of ICT will improve our daily lives. Information for instance is key to knowledge and higher productivity. Quality research works, fast information regarding improvements and innovations in other countries will bring about the fast needed development in our country. It will also bridge the gap of long distances by reaching out to our family, relatives or friends and business colleagues in a far away countries of world. An advantage of the world being reduced to a global village.
4. It can also improve the quality of Public Health system in the country. Human life, because of the benefit of ICT; it can be used as a learning and education media, the mass communication media in promoting and campaigning practical and important issues, such as human technological breakthroughs in the health and social sectors. It alos provides wider knowledge and can help in gaining and accessing information.
5. Information and Communications Technology (ICT) is basically our society’s efforts to overcome challenges faced in our every day life. It teaches us its current and emerging citizens valuable knowledge and skills around computing and communications devices, software that operates them, applications that run on them and systems that are built with them.
6. The use of ICT will also help to empower the youths to be independent of their own, financially and vocationally. Rather than depend on their parents or loved ones for survival; they will be technologically equipped to exploit the numerous benefits it offers to this challenging world.
7. ICT has made young people to fit into a dynamic digital world in all spheres of life. The digital age has transformed the way young people communicate, network, seek help, access information and learn. Besides, online transactions and access through a variety of ways such as computers, TV and mobile phones, social media like facebook, whatsapp etc. have placed men on working to socialisng and learning to playing games.
8. The use of ICT will help to fast track our learning process. For instance, e-learning are being taught in and outside the classroom since both learners and educators have been able to harnessed the benefits of educational technology at homes, schools, businesses, and other settings even if we are in abroad, by using the electronic mail, yahoo messenger, call conference, or video conference and so on.
9. Another benefit or importance of ICT is that it will put the country on a sound economic development pillars to gain national competitive advantage. It will improve the quality of practical and important issues such mass communication media geared towards the attainment of social, economic and political goal of development.

In summary therefore, whether we like it or not, ICT has become an integral part of everyday life for many people. It has increased its importance in our daily lives and it is hoped that the country will continue to build on this so that ICT literacy will become a functional requirement for people’s work, social and personal lives.

To achieve all of the above, the government must re-double its efforts by improving on its infrastructures like energy, conscious efforts to provide the relevant materials in our health, schools, parastatals and enabling environment to operate. This will set in motion the standard platform for the attainment of maximum benefit for all.