The Minister of Transportation, Mu’azu Sambo, has reiterated the need to leverage on technology to drive the transportation sector.

Sambo said this while presenting a keynote address at the 17th National Council on Transportation in Abuja on Thursday with the theme: “Transport Technology and Innovation for Socio-economic Sustainability”.

“The truth of the matter is we live in an era where if you don’t deploy technology or use it, you are going to be left behind.

“Technology is required in terms of developing this country. We cannot catch up with the rest of the world unless we are technology savvy.

“To further improve on the contribution of transportation to Nigeria’s development, we need to leverage the potential of technology, hence the relevance of this year’s theme.

“Technology contributed 18.44 per cent of the nation’s GDP in the second quarter of 2022 compared to 6.33 per cent only, contributed by the oil sector.

“There is no gain saying that all over the world, technology and ICT have taken the centre stage of human interaction.

“As it cuts production cost, it ensures efficient  movement of goods and services, simplifies communication processes and generally improves the overall quality of life.”

Sambo said that for transportation to be relevant in driving an innovative and digital economy, transportation stakeholders in Nigeria needed to envision the future together.

He said stakeholders must strategies and adopt implementable smart goals to withstand the dynamic trends and changes that the sector was constantly going through around the globe.

According to the minister, the transportation sector is unique and dynamic as it does not exist for itself but provides a veritable platform that enables other sectors of the economy thrive.

“It drives social interactions and socio-economic integration, it creates access to education, healthcare, commerce and promotes development among others.

“It is therefore apt to state that transportation is to the economy what blood is to the human body. ”

The minister called on the federal, state and local government to ensure safe and secure transportation and also protect transport infrastructure that pass through their various domain.

“There is also need for serious synergy between the Federal Government and the states.

“Whatever the Federal Government does will be meaningless unless the states are on board.

“The majority of our people live in the states, so we expect state government to innovate and come on board and we will provide the enabling environment for the states to thrive.

“This for me, is one of the major way of achieving a sustainable socio-economic development, ”Sambo said.

The minister then emphasised the need to ensure the implementation of the resolutions reached at the conference, saying “ implementation is key’’.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the conference has in attendance representatives of the National Assembly, House of Representative, Commissioners of Transport across the various states and stakeholders in the transportation sector amongst others.