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Telecom firms in the country would soon begin to give scholarship to Nigerian students at varous levels of study.
Minister of Communication, Barrister Adebayo Shittu, dropped this hint at the weekend while featuring on Political Circuit’, a political programme on Ibadan-based Fresh FM.
He said the scholarship programmes would be the telecom firms’ way of supporting education in Nigeria.
According to him, the telecom industry in Nigeria contributed over 10 per cent to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) last financial year. He described the feat as unprecedented and a mark of the huge importance of the industry to the Nigerian economy.
Shittu also revealed that several foreign investors have expressed interest in taking over 9mobile, formerly Etisalat.
Recall that Etisalat left Nigeria earlier in the month over its inability to pay back loans obtained from a consortium of banks in the country. The consortium, including the Central Bank of Nigeria have since taken over and renamed the company, 9mobile.
The minister said the Federal Government was pleased to inform Nigerians of the new development as a way of assuring subscribers to Etisalat that there was no cause to worry.
He said the Federal Government intervened in the loan crisis rocking the company in order to prevent it from closing down which could have had several negative implications.
Shittu said thousands of direct and indirect jobs would have been lost while investors’ confidence would have been eroded.
He promised that government would continue to strengthen the enabling environment for investments and job creation initiatives in the country.