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- IT service providers must adhere to terms of license acquisition, Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and contracts with (MDAs) clients and customers
- MDAs repeating expenses on IT goods and services every budget year because of the poor quality of earlier purchased software and hardware
Government’s IT clearinghouse house, the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has expressed concerns over poor standards of service delivery by foreign and local IT service providers to Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), warning that poor standards impact negatively on the ability of MDAs to meet their commitment to the citizens.
The agency said it was already setting mechanism in place to monitor compliance with a good standard of service delivery and would facilitate the blacklisting of perennial defaulters, prosecute them and ensure a remedy for consumers in an official release quoting the NITDA’s Director General/CEO, Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami.
The statement released in Abuja by Head of Corporate Affairs and External Relations, Hajiya Hadiza Umar, NITDA said the agency has been receiving complaints from MDAs, other government establishments, the organised private sector and individual consumers of IT goods and services on the poor quality of services being rendered by Internet Service Providers (ISPs), Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), Electronic Commerce platforms, Software vendors, IT-enabled service providers such as Financial Technology Service Providers (FTSPs), Payment Terminal Service Providers (PTSPs), Payment Solutions Service Providers (PSSPs), Business Process Outsourcing Service Providers (BPOSPs) and other IT goods and service providers.
An assessment carried out by the agency confirms that such complaints are largely true. While NITDA is working with critical stakeholders to ensure an excellent working environment for both indigenous and foreign IT goods and service providers, the Agency is also making efforts to ensure that Nigerians are satisfied with IT goods and services consumed. The Agency, therefore, will do all it can to enforce the rights of consumers who are being underserved by the substandard services they receive from such providers.
The poor quality of some IT goods and services is adversely affecting the economy. Some businesses have had to pack up as the value derived from IT was not commensurate with IT investments. Additionally, some MDAs have been repeating expenses on IT goods and services in every budget year because of the poor quality of earlier purchased software and hardware. This has constituted an unsustainable drain on the nation’s resources.
“We are therefore calling on both indigenous and foreign IT goods and service providers to pay attention to quality and customer satisfaction. Terms of license acquisition, Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and contracts with clients and customers must be strictly adhered to. The agency is setting mechanism in place to monitor compliance and would facilitate the blacklisting perennial defaulters, prosecute them and ensure a remedy for consumers,” said Dr. Pantami.
NITDA is intensifying its regulatory mandate to ensure adherence to IT quality services delivery to MDAs even as it strengthens policy actions to promoting local content and thickening the frameworks for quality testing and IT product certifications as well as providing firmer IT guidance for the public sector as statutorily mandated
The NITDA is an agency under the Federal Ministry of Communications. It was created in April 2001 to implement the Nigerian Information Technology Policy and co-ordinate general IT development and regulation in the country. Specifically, Section 6(a &c) of the Act mandates NITDA to create a framework for the planning, research, development, standardization, application, coordination, monitoring, evaluation and regulation of Information Technology practices, activities and systems in Nigeria; and render advisory services in all information technology matters to the public and private sectors.
