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The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has restated its commitment to partnering other stakeholders so as to sustain the country’s digital advancement and economy,
“I invite all stakeholders to come and partner, collaborate and cocreate with us new digital future for a sustainable digital Nigeria,” said Director General of NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa Tuesday in Abuja at the Nigeria ICT Week – an event anchored to ensure that Nigeria, Africa largest economy, with over 41.5 million small medium enterprises (SMEs), is able to leverage the paradigm shifts in technology.
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The Nigeria ICT Week held through collaboration involving the NITDA, Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), National Assembly (NASS) and Cyber Future Academy (CFA).
Focusing on the viability of startups and the need to create shared ideas platform to support indigenous entrepreneurs, the NITDA boss said startups hold the future for robust national economic growth.
“I am glad and happy to be in your midst today to give a keynote speech on Nigeria’s Roadmap to Digital Transformation and its impact on the socio-economic development of the nation.
“This event very much aligns with our mandate at NITDA, which is to develop and transform the Digital Economy sector of this great nation by setting up the necessary regulatory and governance framework that will stimulate the growth of the digital economy ecosystem”, said Inuwa even as he highlighted NITDA’s support for indigenous startups which have contributed largely to the $4billion generated by the continent’s tech startups in 2021 to further attract global attention.
“While we recognize the ocean boiling strategy through which the digital ecosystem has evolved over time, the agency has been in the forefront of catalysing a new approach towards supporting the emergence of a viable digital ecosystem”, added Inuwa. He was represented at the event by the agency’s Acting Director of Corporate Planning and Strategy Department, Dr Aristotle Onumo.
According to the NITDA boss, the agency’s Strategic Roadmap and Action Plan 2021-2024 (SRAP) has offered a “veritable compass for navigating the nation’s volatile, uncertain and dynamic digital industry.
“The ICT week is therefore part of Nigeria is ready campaign and provides a suitable platform to share our experiences in our journey of digital transformation. As an agency we have made the strategic decision of joining this global trend and the 4IR.”
Inuwa said “the implementation of the SRAP is anchored on partnership, and stakeholder collaboration either public or private, indigenous or international as long as the vision and values align with our propositions.”
During his earlier welcome address, the Deputy Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on ICT & Digital Economy, Hon. Solomon Adaelu mentioned that power is a major restricting factor to growth in the country and urged participants to come up with solutions leveraging on the distributed ledger that can provide a transparent, efficient and secure power factor.“At the legislative level, we will give support to many of these ideas and programmes as they come and I want to encourage all the agencies that are here to continue to partner with these programmes”, he urged.
Other key players at the event included the MD/CEO, Galaxy Backbone, Prof. Muhammed Bello Abubakar, who was represented by the organization’s Group Head, Regional Offices, Mr. Abdulmaliq Suleiman; the Executive Assistant to the Governor of Delta State and coordinator of UNIDO centre, Mrs Shimite Bello, as well as the Acting Coordinator, Office for Nigerian Digital Innovation (ONDI), Mr Yakubu Musa among others.
