Mallam Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, director general of National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), has said that Information technology is connecting billions of people by providing them with access to knowledge and services, helping people to live more sustainably by making preservation or even regeneration of our natural resources possible.

The DG made this known on Wednesday during his remarks at the Nigeria Information Technology Reporters Association (NITRA) Innovative Forum Webinar with the theme: “Multi-Stakeholder Approach to National Recovery Post-COVID-19 Pandemic”.

He said, “The outbreak of the COVID-19 Pandemic has completely changed the way we live our lives.

“The onset of the pandemic has proven to be an extremely disruptive occurrence that has exacerbated the effects of several social issues previously unknown.

“This has also led to increase in entrepreneurial activities were Enterprises and individuals have shown increased creativity in tackling the challenges posed by the crisis.

“Virtual meetings are adopted by public and private institutions to address the issues of social distancing using video conferencing applications”.

Mallam Abdullahi asserted that in order to prepare Nigeria for the disruption caused by the Pandemic, the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy under the leadership of the Honourable Minister, Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, has put in place many initiatives and programs towards a robust post COVID-19 experience, in line with the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy for a Digital Nigeria.

The Policy, anchored on 8 Pillars – Developmental Regulation, Digital Literacy and Skills, Solid Infrastructure, Digital Services Development and Promotion, Soft Infrastructure, Digital Society and Emerging Technologies, and Indigenous Content Development and Adoption – outlines strategies for transforming Nigeria into a leading digital economy providing quality life and digital economies for all.

The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), one of the implementing arms of the Ministry, was mandated by the National Information Technology Development Act (2007) 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.

The Agency’s role therefore is to develop Information technology in the country through regulatory standards, guidelines and policies.

It is the prime Agency for e-Government implementation, Internet governance and General IT development in Nigeria. Our activities in NITDA are aimed at fast-tracking the realisation of the objectives of NDEPS.

“We at NITDA, based on the directives of the Honourable Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, swiftly initiated several policies and programs for the technology ecosystem and startups to be able to withstand the potential impact of the Pandemic.

“We rolled out these initiatives in order to ensure that technology continues to enable innovation and entrepreneurship while addressing challenges of the society”, he said.

Tech4COVID-19 Committee was constituted with the aim of identifying the challenges the Technology ecosystem is facing during the COVID-19 Pandemic and to propose measures to cushion the effects of the pandemic.

“Members of the Committee were drawn from both the public and private sector and are key players in the Technology ecosystem who have made significant contributions to the Technology and Innovation ecosystem.

“The Committee’s recommendations include strategies to ensure we retain about 100,000 ICT Jobs as well as create additional 30,000 in Post COVID-19 Era through this initiative, he added.

The Agency organised Nigeria COVID-19 Innovation Challenge where Nigerians were challenged to come up with innovation to meet the challenges of the COVID-19 Pandemic and beyond.

Over 1,500 startups participated and three emerged winners Algorizmi, a patient management solution particularly for victims of the COVID-19 Pandemic, Smart Disinfection Chamber, smart tunnel which can be used for disinfection of persons entering any location and Myclinic.ng, an online platform that enables users to hold video consultations with qualified medical doctors from anywhere and at any time, he asserted.

Mallam Abdullahi stated that “Nigeria has over 130 hubs and several hundreds of technology startups.

“These have the capacity of driving innovation and entrepreneurship, and stimulating the economy.

“The Academia, which has always been at the forefront of research and development, needs to expand its horizon to include innovation.

“We need more hubs in the academia to nurture the creativity of our youths. Collaboratively, we in NITDA are can make Nigeria a nucleus of innovation.

“To improve agricultural practices and create jobs, we initiated the National Adopted Village for SMART Agriculture (NAVSA), an ecosystem-driven digital platform where we engage farmers and focus on using precision/smart farming techniques to ensure significant improvement in efficiency and productivity thereby increasing crop yield; increased profit margin and create more jobs.

“We are partnering with relevant stakeholders to ensure the success of the scheme.

“As an example, MTN has developed a special package for smart farmers that come with 4G SIM cards with a one year internet data subscription, he added.

The Nigeria Data Protection Regulation (NDPR), aimed at safeguarding the rights of persons to privacy, fostering safe conduct for the transactions involving the exchange of personal data, preventing manipulation of personal data, and ensuring that Nigerian businesses remain competitive in international trade through the safeguards afforded by a just and equitable legal regulatory framework, facilitated the creation of 2,686 jobs, added over 2 billion naira into the economy, and generated over 12 million naira to the Federal Government by filing Audit Reports.

The Agency has also deployed ICT infrastructure across the country. In addition to the numerous capacity building programmes in line with the Digital Literacy and Skills pillar of the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy, the Virtual Learning Platform of the NITDA Academy for Research and Training that provides access to wide variety of programmes from industry stakeholders has so far attracted over 33,000 active learners.

Earlier in his remarks, Mr Ike Nnamani, president Medallion Communications, stated that skills acquisition is key to the growth and development of any country.

“There is need to improve in the services rendered to the public and at the same time the price should be reasonable for affordability.

“Telecommunications is moving to data which is the new trend simple because of its easy access and usage which makes work faster and easier.

“Data centers are imperative towards the delivering services to the public which will boost the economy’s output, he added.

Nnamani asserted that there is need to build more data center across the country to provide easy access to services, simply because subscribers need good service to effect their operations which will aid the swift growth and development of the country Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Mr Aderemi Adejumo, managing director CloudFlex, said that the programme is coming at the right time the country needs it the most and applauded NITRA for this initiative towards the drive of Information Technology development across the country.

He added that 90% of the businesses in the country are been moved abroad which is affecting the country’s GDP and output bringing about the fall in some sectors of the economy.

“The low implementation and push towards the growth of the IT sector has affected the activities of the sector and there is need to boost the sector simply because of its contributions to the Nations GDP.

Adejumo said that Nigeria is the most important economy to the world due to the vast population and the potentials embedded in the citizens towards achieving goals and objectives.

We need to boost the skills of our citizens which will bring out the potentials embedded in them towards the growth of the country.

NITRA Innovative Forum is annual Information and Communication Technology roundtable organised by the Nigeria Information Technology Reporters Association (NITRA).

The flagship event, which started in 2018, takes different sub themes each year to address the needs of the industry and set a pace for development.

This year, NITRA sees an enormous opportunity to ICT development and growth despite the COVID-19 scourge.

The event will seek to discuss the level of preparedness of ICT stakeholders to embrace the challenge of being pivotal to the stability and growth of all other sectors, during and after the pandemic.