By 
By Nwakaego Alajemba
Nigeria occupies a strategic position to be an outsourcing destination and could leverage on his huge number of young people who are digital natives to serve the global outsourcing market at lower rates than in Asia or other favourite destinations, the Director General, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Dr Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami has said.
Pantami spoke recently in Abuja when the Association of Outsourcing Professionals of Nigeria (AOPN), visited the agency’s head office.
Dr Pantami and Muyiwa during the AOPN visit to NITDA
Nigeria’s IT regulator said NITDA remained committed to fulfilling its mandate to promote local capacity and content as well as build an industry-wide synergy with stakeholders to help achieve government IT objectives through the NITDA.
He said making Nigeria the continent’s prime outsourcing destination would require the support of bodies like the AOPN and asserted that government has, on its own, set the agenda with favourable policy thrusts such as executive orders 003 and 005 designed to ensure patronage for local content and skills.
Officials of NITDA and AOPN inside NITDA, Abuja
Head of the AOPN, Mr Oyadairo Muyiwa, commended the NITDA for its avowed commitment to the sector and the increasing attention on local content. Muyiwa said the team was in NITDA to formally invite the agency to its upcoming Outsourcing Expo, as well as to explore ways of collaboration with NITDA in effectively regulating the outsourcing sector.
According to Muyiwa, NITDA has a cardinal role to lead Nigeria’s ability to leverage population, size, skill level and geo-political time zone to provide BPO, ITO and other outsourcing services.
NITDA to support ICT Development in Ondo State
Also, in a related event, the agency pledged to support adoption and growth of ICT in Ondo State when a delegation from the Ondo State Information Technology Agency (SITA), led by the State Special Adviser of the agency, Mr Olumbe Akinkugbe, paid an official visit to the NITDA.
While welcoming the delegation, the NITDA’s management team led by Dr Pantami commended Ondo State for heeding its advice to establish its own IT agency to better help the state to have a formal framework to develop ICT at state level and be able to engage stakeholders and national with global support to advance the course of ICT in Ondo State.
