In an effort to address the problem of poverty and promote sustainable development, the United Nations Millennium Declaration was adopted in September 2000 at the largest ever gathering of Heads of State and Government, committing countries both rich and poor to some specific goals. The goals include those dedicated to eradicating poverty, achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality and empowering women, reducing child mortality, improving maternal health, combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, as well as ensuring environmental sustainability and developing a global partnership for development.

The eight main targets, using 1990 as a baseline, are: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger – 2015 target - Halve proportion of people living on less than $1 a day, and those suffering hunger.

Achieve Universal Basic Education - 2015 target - Achieve universal primary education. Promote gender equality and empower women - 2015 target - Eliminate gender disparities in primary and secondary education enrolment by 2015, and achieve equity at all levels by 2015. Reduce child mortality - 2015 target - Reduce by two thirds the child mortality rate.

Improve maternal health - 2015 target - Reduce by three quarters the proportion of women dying at childbirth. Combat AIDS, Malaria and Other Diseases - 2015 target - Halt and begin to reverse the incidence of HIV-AIDS, malaria and other major diseases.

Ensure environmental sustainability - Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes and reverse the loss of environmental resources. 2015 target - reduce by half the proportion of people without access to clean drinking water and basic sanitation. By 2020 achieve a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers. Develop a Global Partnership for Development – This Goal commits north and south to work together to achieve an open, rule-based trading and financial system, more generous aid to countries committed to poverty reduction, and relief for the debt problems of developing countries. It draws attention to the problems of the least developed countries and of landlocked countries and small-island developing states, which have greater difficulty competing in the global economy. Interestingly, target 18 of this Goal stressed the importance of ICT and indicated that “In cooperation with the private sector, the benefits of new technologies, especially information and communications should be made available”.

From available statistical data, for sub-Saharan Africa, the United Nations has declared that “although there have been major gains in several areas and the goals remain achievable in most African nations, even the best governed countries on the continent have not been able to make sufficient progress in reducing extreme poverty in its many forms”.

Nigeria still has a lot of challenges with infrastructure facilities such as roads, electricity, water supply, including ICT (Information and Communications Technology) infrastructure. Our public educational facilities are facing major challenges. It is also true that our hospitals leave so much to be desired in terms of equipment, medical personnel and work ethics. The consequence of this being that the possibility of considerable reduction in the rate of infant and maternal mortality to achieve the MDGs targets by 2015 is low, unless some decisive actions are taken. Based on available information, it is unlikely that Nigeria will be able to meet some of the goals by 2015 especially the goals related to eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, reducing child and maternal mortality and combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases.

But, we can accelerate the transformation of the economy using the power of ICT infrastructure. With increased usage of ICTs in the economy, the achievement of most of the MDGs could be fast-tracked as no modern economy can thrive without an integral information technology and telecommunications infrastructure. Indeed, no nation can effectively succeed in solving her 21st century development challenges, unless the national vision and strategies are anchored on ICT. ICTs provide the veritable platform for rapid growth of our economy, if well harnessed. The power of ICTs can be effectively harnessed through the participation and cooperation of all stakeholders in our society – government, private sector and development partners. ICT remains an enabler that could help Nigeria and other African countries get out of the doldrums of backwardness and move faster.

Achieving the MDGs, is in itself, a challenge that many developing countries are grappling with. They face enormous challenges in developing their education systems – from providing universal basic education and tackling gender bias, to increasing access to and quality of education, all the way to strengthening tertiary education to produce a critical mass capable of taking advantage of technological innovations of this day and age. It is strongly believed that the vision of becoming top-20 economy can only be achieved if Nigeria also makes the transition to a new economy based on knowledge, productivity, and innovation that will enable it to be competitive in a 21st century context. Indeed, for Nigeria and other African countries to bridge the gap of development between them and other advanced economies of the world, there is urgent and dire need to optimize the power of technology and innovations. Nigeria must learn from other economies were technologies have been deployed to tackle poverty and accelerate growth in all sectors.

Knowledge has always been central to development and can mean the difference between poverty and wealth. Countries such as Korea, India and the United States of America, etc have harnessed the power of new technologies to nurture a cadre of knowledge workers that can push the productivity and innovation frontiers. Others that failed to do so remain mired in poverty and deprivations. Nigeria must place importance on the need to advance the course of information and technology to fast-track the growth of the economy and achieve our vision. Indeed, there is a paradigm shift in global development agenda and Nigeria cannot pretend not to be affected by its current and emerging impact. Any nation that wishes to attain and sustain meaningful development must therefore enthrone science and technology, and in particular, ICTs.

The global financial crisis and the concomitant fall in oil prices have shown that countries can no longer rely on narrow and static paradigms of growth, such as Nigeria and its natural resource endowments. The era when natural resources dominated trade has given way to an era in which knowledge resources are paramount. Our world is changing rapidly and those who are able to acquire, adapt, and utilize new ideas and innovations, regardless of who has invented them, will create tremendous wealth in the process. To achieve a quantum leap on MDGs as well as achieve Vision 2020, Nigeria needs to move beyond stop-start development patterns of an oil-based economy to create a stable and prosperous base for a 21st century society built on a critical mass of knowledge workers.

Indeed, given the short to medium term limitations in power and transport, the most promising area is the service sector, and more specifically the absorption of ICT. Growing the sector implies embracing the knowledge economy paradigm, developing education and skills, and putting in place a modern communications infrastructure. Freeing up the country’s dynamic businesses to create more ICT jobs will create more opportunities for our teeming youth, and accelerate the achievement of the MDGs and Vision 20.20.20. Indeed, there is no better leverage for self employment and entrepreneurship opportunities than through the use of ICT.

One of the key strategic objectives of NV 20.20.20 is to promote development of local capacity in ICT for global competiveness. The ICT for development (ICT 4D) Strategic Action Plan is targeted at encouraging research and development, local manufacture, capacity and content development in key areas of ICT. Among the areas to achieve the above are the following initiatives:
- facilitate development of a national multimedia superhighway.

- establishment of a national ICT backbone connectivity and Bandwidth aggregation solution.
- establishment of appropriate legal and regulatory framework to support e-biz and ICT-enabled activity.

- provision of appropriate incentives including tax benefits and enabling environment for investment, innovation and exploitation of ICT-enabled services.

Currently, all successful economies of the world are knowledge-based and technology driven. They have established a new global society, where the core value system is domiciled in the skills to create productively, by transforming knowledge and information into innovative products and services. But, we may not, as a nation, be able to keep pace with the rapidly changing world without a fundamental shift in our value system and education model. Today, knowledge has become the centre of gravity for human progress, productivity, sustainable growth and wealth creation.

To become a knowledge economy, we will need to improve the quality and relevance of education, particularly of vocational training, and expand access to ICTs. The challenges faced by the Nigerian education system are great, but so too are the potential and the scope for meaningful government participation as an architect, provider and partner, rather than just as a regulator. To improve access, quality and funding of education, our country must harness the contribution of the private sector. The government can play a catalytic role in the process of building strong public-private partnerships that could provide funds and know-how to improve curricula and realign priorities. By generating a critical mass of educated people whose skills are continually refined through lifelong learning and the progressive upgrade of the education system, our country can build the foundations of a knowledge-driven economy.

But, as a first step, Government should provide the needed enabling environment for ICT to thrive in Nigeria, and efforts should be made to automate all parastatals and agencies. The modern world does not deal in missing hard files. Besides, government should create awareness on the importance of IT as a way of life and business culture. We must embark on e-government to radically change how government functions. This will lead to transparent accountability. It will also allow for unhindered monitoring of government behaviour.

In today’s knowledge-based world, ICT plays a critical role in boosting productivity, economic growth and poverty reduction. Recent evidence has shown that an increase of 10 mobile phone users per 100 people can boost GDP growth by almost 0.6 percent and a 1 percent increase in the number of internet users can increase GDP growth by 4.3 percent. Rapid advances in information infrastructure are drastically affecting the acquisition, creation, dissemination, and use of knowledge, which in turn affects economic and social activities, including how manufacturers, service providers, and government are organized, and how they perform their functions. The establishment of a liberal regulatory structure in Nigeria which allows for competition and private sector participation over the past 10 years has led to outstanding growth rates in the sector with multiplier effect on the economy. But, there are still challenges and limitless business opportunities in the sector.

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