Nigeria's information communications technology (ICT) sector could eclipse the petroleum sector as the highest revenue earner by the year 2020.

This is according to a report quoting Nigeria's minister of communication technology, Omobola Johnson, who said the ICT sector would soon displace the petroleum sector as the largest contributor to the national income.

Nigeria's oil sector represents 14.4% of the country's revised Gross Domestic Product (GDP), according to the World Bank.

Johnson said the West African nation wants to be in the top 20 economy with the ICT sector contributing the maximum share to the national income and serving as a catalyst.

After a revision of the country's GDP, which increased to $509 billion, Nigeria became the 26th largest economy in the world.

"We believe that ICT has the greatest potential to eclipse oil and gas as the core source of national income, if not the most reliable, contributing the maximum possible percentage of income to the country," Johnson was quoted.

"We know that the few agencies under the ministry of communication technology working closely together can certainly deliver on the ICT mandate of the country," said Johnson.

The minister; however, did not mention which sectors of the ICT market could help drive Nigeria's ICT to be the highest revenue earner by 2020.

Earlier this year Dobek Pater, analyst at Africa Analysis, told ITWeb Africa that Nigeria's ICT landscape is very dynamic and holds a lot of opportunity for innovative products or services.

Nigeria's ICT landscape, in general, is very competitive and still very immature, he said.

"Mobile communications is the most advanced sector, with the consumer market being the most competitive," said Pater.

"When we look at the data centre and cloud-based services for instance, the market is in an infantile stage. Also, if we look at the enterprise / corporate market, it is still a very young and not very competitive market," he added.

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) says the telecoms industry contributes 8.5% to the country's GDP.

Meanwhile, Nigeria's film industry Nollywood makes up 1.4% of GDP in terms of the country's digital content sector.