By 
By Oluwatobi Opusunju
The Nigerian government has saved three billion naira on a single cleared IT Project of a federal agency through the intervention of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), government’s clearinghouse for all IT procurement and services in the public sector.
Read: https://itedgenews.africa/2017/09/14/nitda-efcc-firm-public-sector-corruption-procurement/
NITDA’s IT procurement intervention is offering a glimmer of hope for government’s ability to cut out wasteful and duplicative IT procurement and services in ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) amid growing concerns about the mismanagement of huge investment of public funds on IT Projects in MDAs.
One of President Muhammadu Buhari’s expressed commitment is to end mismanagement and wastefulness of public funds in the public sector. Since the appointment of NITDA’s new helmsman and Director General, Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, NITDA has enhanced its role as an unbiased watchdog of government to ensure a greater sense of transparency, accountability and effectiveness in the process of obtaining clearance from NITDA targeted at extracting maximum value from MDAs’ investments on IT projects. This has significantly saved government monies on public sector IT projects.
Also Read: https://itedgenews.africa/2017/10/06/nitda-says-corruption-fighting-back-agency-addresses-concerns-implementation-2017-budget/
Not surprisingly therefore, President Muhammadu Buhari, at the recent e-Nigeria conference in Abuja “called for strict compliance to the IT Project’s Clearance directive by all government establishments to ensure that governments ICT procurements are transparent, align with government’s IT shared vision and policy, save costs through promotion of shared services, avoid duplication, ensure interoperability of IT systems and improve efficiency across government, enforce the patronage of indigenous companies where capacity exist thus fostering digital economy through effective regulation and local content development as well as uphold the highest standards for service delivery.”
While commending the NITDA for its efforts at enforcing the federal government’s directive on ensuring that all ICT projects are cleared before they are implemented, Buhari said government’s ability to meet its commitment to the populace depends on efforts of agencies such as the NITDA to live up to their roles at driving efficiency, transparency and saving cost on behalf of the government.
The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) is an Agency under the Federal Ministry of Communications. The Agency was created in April 2001 to implement the Nigerian Information Technology Policy and coordinate general IT development and regulation in the country.
Read: https://itedgenews.africa/2017/09/29/pantami-nitda-now-knowledge-driven-agency/
