The United Kingdom has reiterated its commitment towards supporting the Federal Government to promote the growth of Nigeria’s tech ecosystem and close the digital divide in the country.

Ben Llewellyn-Jones, OBE, the British Deputy High Commissioner to Nigeria, stated this on Thursday, March 11, in Lagos.

This was during a virtual technical conference facilitated by the UK’s Digital Access Programme on Digital Inclusion for Underserved/Unserved Communities and Persons Living with Disabilities (PLWDs).

“As our fight against the pandemic goes on, our focus is on supporting a sustainable and resilient recovery across Nigeria,” he told participants at the conference.

Llewellyn-Jones added, “Tech has the ability to help us tackle some of the greatest social challenges of our time – from protecting our environment and reducing carbon emissions, to transforming health systems, saving lives through diagnosing diseases earlier, to aiding economic inclusion by deepening access to underserved populations.

“To drive this growth, Nigeria needs a combination of increased access to faster and better quality internet connectivity infrastructure, and upskilled tech talent pool, a vibrant start-up ecosystem, access to investment, and partnership opportunities both regionally and internationally.”

Furthermore, the UK envoy explained that the conference was organised as a catalyst to aggregate views and develop quick-win strategies to resolve the issues of populations without access to digital, in order to bring poor and excluded people into the digital economy, reducing poverty and stimulating economic growth.