The Director General, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, has urged Nigerian technology experts to get ready for new innovations and ideas for post-COVID-19 pandemic era, particularly to fast-track the recovery and sustainable development of the country.
The Director General, who is also the Chief Information Technology Officer of Nigeria, made this call as a Panel discussion during the Africa Tech Leaders Webinar Series organised by Digital Jewels with the theme: ‘COVID-19 Pandemic: The Africa Leaders’ Outlook’, on Tuesday.
The DG said that with all that has happened during Coronavirus scourge, African countries can still key into technology and digitise its processes in order to boost the continent’s economies after the Pandemic.
He further noted that the Nigerian government, through policies and regulations, had already laid a foundation on which digital services can help revive economies that were ravaged by COVID-19 globally.
The DG disclosed that digital transformation has positively played a big role during this pandemic in accelerating the trends of digital technologies and how they will also help Nigeria to address the changes.
Abdullahi explained that since the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, NITDA has implemented different programmes to cushion the effects on Nigeria. He noted the scourge has completely shattered so many planned events and activities across the globe, but that should not be a yardstick for innovators not coming up with new ideas that will help in reviving Nigeria’s economy.
“For me, the promising silver lining in this pandemic is accelerating technology trends and shaping the future of digital economy and digital transformation in general.
“When President Muhammadu Buhari came into power in 2015, he promised to make drastic changes in Nigeria, particularly in the eeconomic sector. The government then set up a committee on Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP), which identified ICT as a key enabler.
“We took digital transformation as a journey, and it started some years back. President Muhammadu Buhari redesignated our Ministry from Communications to Communications and Digital Economy. This is a giant step in achieving our target in transforming Nigeria into digital country.
“The Federal Executive Council set up a policy that will be cascaded to MDAs and NITDA is issuing regulatory instruments that can help any MDAs to perform its work better. Also, we issued guidelines, standard and framework for government policymakers and other stakeholders to deliver their Technological services efficiently,” he added.
While answering question on the recently concluded Nigeria COVID-19 Innovation Challenge, Inuwa said that the idea was to find a solution to the effect of Coronavirus using technology measures.
He clarified: “We initiated Nigeria COVID-19 Innovation Challenge that brought innovators together to ideate digital strategy and how to contain the spread of the virus and prepare us for post COVID-19 era. During the opening of the challenge, we received over 1500 applications from different Ministries, Agencies, Presidential Task Force on COVID -19 and the Private Sector.”
On the rising cost of data and poor network connectivity in Nigeria, the DG said, “it is not within NITDA’s jurisdiction, it is the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) that has the mandate to license telecommunication and internet service providers. However, the Honourable Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Ali Ibrahim (Pantami), has been talking about improving the services, especially reviewing the cost, which is a process. NCC is already working on that and I am sure they will engage stakeholders to improve telecommunication services.
He further enlightened the audience on the role of NITDA in ensuring IT adoption, stating that some of the policies the agency has rolled out include the Nigerian Enterprise Architecture and Nigerian e-Government Masterplan, which are documented to highlight short and long term plan on what NITDA intend to achieve in IT adoption and investment.
The DG said: “At NITDA, we came up with different initiatives to prepare the way for Digital transformation, among others, we have developed and implemented as follows: Nigeria e-government master plan, Nigeria eGovernment Framework, Nigeria eGovernment Enterprise Architecture, Nigeria Cloud Computing Polices, Digital First initiative and Nigeria Smart Initiative Policy Framework. These initiatives have been helping us all during this COVID-19. They will continue to assist us even after the pandemic.”
Abdullahi, however, noted that NITDA has been clearing IT projects from different Ministries, Departments and Agencies of the Federal Government of Nigeria to ensure quality service is rendered.
He said, “NITDA makes sure all IT projects from MDAs are being cleared by NITDA as stipulated in the law. We check the value for money and local content compliance which aligns with our National e-Government Masterplan. We also conducted extensive capacity building training for MDAs and citizens in general on how to adopt and embrace digital technology”.
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