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NIGERIAN technology experts must get ready for new innovations and ideas to drive a new world in a post COVID-19 era, Director General, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Mallam Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi has said.
Abdullahi, also Nigeria’s Chief Information Technology Officer, asserted from Abuja as a panelist during the Africa Tech Leaders Webinar Series that while the coronavirus currently ravaging economies worldwide will ultimately be defeated, it is imperative for the tech community in Nigeria to envisage a new world order driven by innovations and in which they are active participants.
Organised by Digital Jewels with the theme: ‘COVID-19 Pandemic: The Africa Leaders’ Outlook’, the webinar focused on how to get economic engines running in spite of the global viral attack.
Abdullahi stressed that in spite of the coronavirus scourge, African countries can still key into technology and digitise economic processes to boost the continent’s economy after the pandemic.
Through policies and regulations, Nigeria has already laid a foundation on which digital services can help revive economies that were ravaged by COVID-19 globally, he added.
He said digital transformation has positively played a big role during this pandemic in accelerating the trends of digital technologies and how it will also help us to address the changes.
According to him, since the outbreak, NITDA has come up with different programmes to cushion the effect of COVID-19 especially in Nigeria.
While the scourge has completely shattered so many planned events and activities across the globe, the NITDA’s boss argued that the pandemic should not be a ‘defeatist syndrome ‘for innovators not to come up with new ideas that will help in reviving Nigeria’s economy.
His words: “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.”
Adding: “When President Muhammadu Buhari came into power in 2015, he promised to make drastic changes in Nigeria, particularly in the economic 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 re-designated 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.”
Nigeria COVID-19 Innovation Challenge
While answering questions on the recently concluded Nigeria COVID-19 Innovation Challenge, Abdullahi said that the idea was to find a solution for coronavirus using technology measures.
“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”, he said.
While answering a question on the rising cost of data and poor network connectivity in Nigeria, the Abdullahi 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 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.
Nigerian Enterprise Architecture
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 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.
“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”, he said.
Abdullahi, however, noted that NITDA has been clearing IT projects from different ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) of the 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”.
