Galaxy Backbone Opens North East Office In Gombe

BY NAJIB SANI, GOMBE

The federal government’s Information Communication Technology (ICT) company known as ‘Galaxy Backbone’ has opened its north east zonal office in Gombe State.

Minister of communication and digital economy Isa Ali Pantami commissioned the office on Friday.

Speaking at the commissioning ceremony, Pantami said the project would benefit the entire six states in the region by improving digital economy, providing job opportunities and enhancing cyber security.

According to him, with the contributions of ICT to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), having the centre in the region would help consolidate the gains of the digital economy.

The minister said the digital economy sector had supported the federal government’s effort at diversifying the economy.

“For many years, most probably 50 years, Nigeria relied so much on oil and gas.
“But today, we have reached a situation where the contribution of ICT to our gross domestic products in Nigeria is almost three times the contribution of oil and gas to the country’s GDP.

“In the last three years, we have set up three unprecedented records with regards to ICT contributions to GDP,” Pantami said.

Also speaking, the managing director of the company Muhammadu Abubakar explained that Galaxy remains committed to connecting all the 36 states of Nigeria into ICT infrastructure to boost the nation’s digital economy.

He said the zonal office in Gombe will serve as marketing office and house the Safe City infrastructure that will form a seed for Gombe to function as a “Smart City,”.