President Bola Tinubu is scheduled to sign the groundbreaking National Digital Economy and E-Governance Bill 2025 into law this month.
The announcement was made by the Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Bosun Tijani, who highlighted the bill’s potential to modernise governance and accelerate Nigeria’s journey towards a one trillion dollar economy.
Described as the first legislation of its kind in Africa, the bill will create a comprehensive legal framework for electronic communications, digital signatures, artificial intelligence (AI) governance, cybersecurity, and digital literacy.
A key feature is the proposal for a National Data Exchange System to enable secure data sharing across government agencies and between the public and private sectors.
Minister Tijani revealed that Nigeria’s digital economy already contributes 16% to the nation’s GDP, with a projection to grow to 21% by 2027.
To support this expansion, the government is actively deploying 90,000 kilometres of fibre-optic cable and nearly 4,000 new communication towers to provide world-class internet access to underserved communities and connect over 20 million Nigerians.
Dele Fashomi, seasoned journalist and communication teacher, is a holder of Master of Arts degree in Communication and Language Arts from the University of Ibadan in 1992/93.
Earlier, he had bagged a Bachelor degree from the same university in 1984, after which he proceeded to the Nigerian Institute of Journalism, Lagos, in 1990, for a postgraduate diploma in Journalism.
He had done many courses in communication, including the EU-BBC Editing Course in 2002.
Mr. Fashomi combines effectively the practice, research and teaching of communication. And to date, he has published two academic works in communication: Issues in Communication Technology and Policy (2010) and Economic and Social Issues in Advertising and PR (2013).
He had his first break in the Nigerian media in Concord Newspapers in 1990 and today, he has over two and half decades experience earned in several newspapers.
He has been part of many start-ups, such as The Republic (1987), The Comet (1999), The Anchor 2001 – 2002; Sun Newspapers (2003); Westerner newsmagazine (2005 – 2010) as Editor; National Life (2011) as Sunday Editor, and Newswatch Newspapers (2012- 2016) as Daily Editor.
Dele Fashomi is now the Publisher/Editor-in-Chief of Newstide247.com newspaper online, which he started in July 2015. He is also into biography writing, with many books in his trail, some of which he wrote alone and one he co- authored with his mentor, Mr Dare Babarinsa, entitled: Olabiyi Durojaiye – DARE TO BE DiFFERENT. He also guided and collaborated with Pa Olatunji Odusanya in writing his autobiography – AGAINST ALL ODDS. There are many other books in the works under his pen.
