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The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) is seeking to collaborate with the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) on leveraging ICT to ensure timely search and rescue operations.
The two federal government agencies discussed firming up NEMA’s operations through NITDA’s support in Abuja during a recent visit of Director General of NEMA, Mustapha Habib Ahmad to the Director General and CEO of NITDA, Mallam Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi.
NEMA is desiring to make its Zonal Territorial and Operational offices more effective and seeks NITDA’s intervention is to have real time and sudden onset disaster communication, video conferencing, collection of damage and loss assessment data among others to enable timely lifesaving search and rescue operations.
The agency also wants the IT regulator’s guidance on leveraging technology to effectively deploy humanitarian support at the right time.
Mallam Abdullahi while also congratulating the NEMA’s boss for his recent appointment, described his task as onerous that requires sustained and strengthened partnerships for him to succeed in his duties.
He assured that NITDA will work within the framework of its mandate at developing and regulating the use of ICT in Nigeria to support NEMA particularly in areas that require the application of digital technology.
NEMA’s operations require the application of modern technology “to work effectively and efficiently as well as tp gain insight so as to predict a disaster even before it happens,” said Abdullahi adding that digital tools will help position agencies like NEMA to always be ahead of any situation.
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He assured NEMA of support and NITDA’s commitment to include the agency into its Digital Transformation Working Group (DTWG) to facilitate organizing capacity building for their personnel through the use of technology.
The NEMA’s boss while thanking the IT regulatory agency said NEMA is faced with managing various calamities and building the culture of resilience in Nigerians as they contend with wide ranging disasters such as insurgent activities ravaging the North East, communal conflicts, kidnappings and banditry, annual floods and most recently the COVID19 global pandemic.
“Resources at the agency’s disposal no doubt have been over stretched and can barely meet the various disaster challenges across the nation,” said Ahmad adding NEMA resolved to seek collaboration with other stakeholders including NITDA.
