By Victor Akindele
Nigeria’s IT regulator, National Information and Technology Development Agency (NITDA) said it has sanctioned 125 government Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) for violating the guidelines on indigenous ICT content development. The Director-General of NITDA, Mr. Kashifu Inuwa, disclosed this today in a Tweet Chat to mark his one year in office.
According to Inuwa, the Agency sanctioned the MDAs based on relevant laws having failed to comply with the government’s rules on local content. He said that NITDA had also audited IT systems, processes, digital services, and capabilities of about 100 MDAs to assess their digital transformation readiness and advise them on future IT investment in line with National Digital Economy Policy for digital Nigeria.
Highlighting achievements of the Agency in the last one year, Inuwa said: “So far, our efforts yielded results in driving the digital transformation in government. We mandated all MDAs to set up or revive their IT departments and units, and this has led to the creation of 270 user accounts dedicated to allowing MDAs to submit their IT projects without the hassle or the previously arduous and slow paper-based options.”
“These mandatory digital options under our watch have allowed the government to clear 154 unique projects embarked on by 73 MDAs at the rate of N1.2 trillion. The process we adopted helped the government save about N5 billion,” the DG stated.
He added that the Agency had been holding periodic stakeholder engagements, where it provided guidelines for MDAs in the drafting of Service Level Agreement (SLA) in their engagement with IT service providers.
“Fortunately, the ICT sector accounts for 17.83 per cent of Nigeria’s GDP, we are at least targeting five per cent quarterly increase on every achievement in the years ahead. Our projections are to drive Nigeria towards a digital world.
“We're currently exploring the use and adoption of Blockchain Technology, Artificial Intelligence and data exploration framework and strategy for adoption into the digital economy vision of President Muhammadu Buhari and under the leadership of Dr. Isa Pantami,” Inuwa stated.
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