By 
How to make Abuja a smart city was the subject of a visit this week by the National Information Technology Development Agency, (NITDA) to the Ministry of Federal Capital Territory (FCT). The working visit by the management team of NITDA was led by its Director General who is also the country’s Chief Information Officer, Dr Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami.
Pantami wants the FCT to consider Abuja as the pilot scheme for the Smart City project in line with practices in other African countries such as South Africa, Rwanda and Kenya where governments and municipal leaders have mobilized technology and skills to rework several urban centres as smart cities. He argued that Abuja being the capital of the country, offers a good starting point to begin to model the country’s urban centres as smart cities.
“Most of the things that are required in building a smart city are already in Abuja adding that the population is enlightened, infrastructure are available and the people are digitally oriented,” said Pantami while addressing the staff and management of the FCT led by the Minister, Mallam Muhammed Musa Bello.
He said the transformation of the city to a smart one would help to drastically reduce crime, improve the transportation system, save man-hour and save cost. “The benefits are uncountable particularly now that the power is improving, I think we need to start the process by taking it bit by bit and ensure that we achieve it,” Pantami added as he stressed the need for partnership between his agency and the FCT to make Abuja a smart city.
The NITDA’s boss said the agency as a regulator and developer of IT policy in Nigeria needs the buy-in of the FCT minister before the project can be achieved.
“These two things are very critical, they are the catalysts for establishing a smart city. There must be policy, NITDA can play a significant role in coming up with the policy but more importantly the minister’s role is very crucial in establishing the city.
Pantami also reiterated the need for compliance on the part of the ministry with the federal government directive on executive order 003 that compels all ministries, department and agencies (MDAs) to patronize indigenous ICT companies, services and products.
He said it was in the interest of the FCT to seek advice from the NITDA on IT related issues particularly clearance of its IT projects and help to advance the objectives of ICT local content as desired by the federal government. There is much benefits in patronizing the locally manufactured IT goods and services, said Pantami to his host.
Citing Executive Orders 003, 005 and other federal government directives and circulars, the NITDA’s boss said compliance would create jobs for Nigerians. He stated that statistic has shown that proper enforcement would help in growing the ICT sector. His words:
“In 2017, we only enforce the circular for only six month and we are able to realize the patronage of 355, 000 computers which was unprecedented in the history of patronage of locally manufactured computer.”
Mallam Bello who expressed his delight with NITDA over the smart city proposal assured the agency of the FCT’s readiness to partner towards making Abuja a smarty city.
Bello said there was no alternative to making Abuja a model city and one that lives up to the expectation of a 21st century urban centre. Abuja already has infrastructure to successfully drive a smart city theme, said the minister since the city has good road network, robust telecommunication presence, a reliable transport system, and security architecture all of which could be made smart.
His words: “It is very important to collaborate with you, we can do this easily by leveraging on your expertise because we have deployed some of the things you need to achieve this.
Bello assured NITDA that the FCT will comply with the orders on IT deployment and local content.
“Local Content is very important and we need to regulate what we consume to create jobs and grow our economy. I want to assure you that our doors are now open for your compliance Inspectors to come and check our IT projects. We will be contacting you for guidance and if you notice any event of non compliance please bring it to my notice,” said the minister.
