By 
By Nwakaego Alajemba
Director General/CEO, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Mallam Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, is on a working visit to Lagos State where he is sharing the agency’s vision as captured in its new Strategic Roadmap and Action (SRAP) 2021-2024 unveiled last month as part of its 20th anniversary.
The SRAP charts a new strategic direction for the government IT clearinghouse and provides the impetus to fully develop the country’s ICT sector within the ambit of a digital economy, Abdullahi told Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State as he presented him with a copy of the SRAP inside Government House, Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos.
The new SRAP, to run from 2021-2024, is targeting to achieve the goals of the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS) developed to reposition the Nigerian economy to take advantage of the many opportunities that digital technologies provide.
Abdullahi is meeting with government, public officials and private sector ICT business leaders in the commercial city of Nigeria with more than 20 million people.
Sanwo-Olu commended the agency as it leads the country’s pathway for economic development through ICT noting that Lagos remains committed to ICT infrastructure development and collaborations with local and international bodies to drive its goals.
According to Abdullahi, the NDEPS itself is fostered around 8-pillars for the acceleration of the National Digital Economy – all of which are aligned with the ‘Economic Recovery and Growth Plan and its successor Nigeria Economic Sustainability Plan of the federal government as well as the priorities assigned to the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy.
The NITDA’s boss lauded Lagos as one of the states that has complied with the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation (NDPR) issued in January 2019 by the NITDA.
Notably, its bustling health industry managed by the state’s health ministry has championed compliance to the NDPR and underscored Abdullahi’s visit also to the Commissioner of Health, Professor Akinola Abayomi in the ministry of health.
He expressed his gladness over the NDPR strides in the ministry and assured it of NITDA’s continuous support.
Lagos meeting with private sector stakeholders is bonding plan
Abdullahi ‘s visit is part of a bonding plan with the private sector players majorly in Lagos deemed by the IT regulator as strategic to achieving the new SRAP.
In Oregun, Ikeja, a few kilometres away from Alausa where he had earlier met Governor Sanwo-Olu, he sat down with Managing Director of Rack Data Centre, Mr. Ayotunde Coker to explore collaboration and promotion of local data hosting services in fulfilment of one of the pillars of the NDEPS on promotion and adoption of indigenous content.
