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Govt to boost local content in ICT sector

By Nkechi Onyedika-Ugoeze, Abuja
17 February 2016   |   2:28 am
THE Federal Government has expressed its readiness to boost local content in the Information Communication Technology (ICT) sector in order to make it compete favourably in the global market. Minister of Communications, Adebayo Shittu, who disclosed this at a stakeholders’ forum in Abuja, observed that emphasis on local content has become very crucial in view…

ICT

THE Federal Government has expressed its readiness to boost local content in the Information Communication Technology (ICT) sector in order to make it compete favourably in the global market.

Minister of Communications, Adebayo Shittu, who disclosed this at a stakeholders’ forum in Abuja, observed that emphasis on local content has become very crucial in view of the dwindling government’s revenue and fall in oil price adding that local content has the capacity to increase GDP, create more jobs and encourage foreign investors to come in and invest in the country.

Shittu, who was represented by Director of ICT in the Ministry of Communications, Mrs. Monilola Udoh, noted that the country is focusing on diversifying its revenue sources away from crude oil and the ICT sector is critical in actualizing this objective.

He said: “Government has pledged to support ICT centres to enable more young people in the country to come up with great ideas to improve the sector. Presently, about eight per cent of the country’s GDP is contributed by ICT; the aim of the government is to improve it to about 30 per cent before the end of this administration by 2019.”

He promised that the government will help address the issues that affect the sector such as poor quality control, pricing, and quality of service and support of the private sectors to build world class data centres to create more jobs in the country.

In his address, the acting Director- General of NITDA, Dr. Vincent Olatunji, lamented the high consumption rate of imported goods in the country, noting that “it is time for us to start manufacturing some of these machines and better our economy rather than to export all the time.”

5 Comments

  • Author’s gravatar

    Mr. Igini nobody says and I am sure that the S/ Court did not, that the card reader machines breached the Constitution rather that you (INEC) should have made it part or complementary or mandatory instrument for use in elections in Nigeria! Even here it must be made such that it does not constitute tools for rigging out candidates, like was the plan before the March date hence the postponement of the election day, it was reason for my suggesting that all those who have not gotten their PVC still within your office and under lock and key but their names show on your register and were at the polling venue must be allowed to cast their voted for the simple reason that the names on the PVC were all derived from your register! What it is in Nigeria you never want to call those who gave you solutions to join in the implementation of the solution in case you run into problems otherwise if you hadn’t decide on PVC you would normally have used / depended on the register to determine the people going to cast the votes – Yes or No? That you decided to have PVC was partly to spend money and also, the thing (fault) about Nigeria – to show that you are clever but you intuitively forget that you needed time to get things arranged properly before applying that plan! Besides the issue is not for you to respond to it is for your Chairman who is the Head of INEC to tell Nigerian why the S/Court is wrong not you! Incidentally know that the name and finger hence the idea of PVC is contained in my book on page 161 even the names of possible soft wear producers was supplied on the same page – problem in Nigeria being that you don’t usually want those who supply solutions to be invited to help or partake in what you want to do with such solutions, talking about ‘Protection of Intellectual Property!’ otherwise it was part of the DOs and DON’Ts of my original solution – Option A-4! You may check this out thank you.

    • Author’s gravatar

      You do not create compulsion not created by the constitution. TVC was introduced & accepted without legal backing. PVC followed the same process.
      Anything not against the law, is within the law. PVC like TVC is not against any laws & should be within the law.
      This supreme Court judgement defies logic, should be investigated & prosecuted if found to have been induced by corruption or any form gratification ETC.

      • Author’s gravatar

        What the supreme court said was that the card reader is not to replace the voters register for accreditation as stipulated by the electoral act currently in use. Hence, the accredited voters contained in the card readers’ memory can not be taken to be only people expected to vote. If circumstances warrant it, manual accreditation can be carried out and the people so accredited can vote and the vote will stand. Until the electoral act is amended such that only the card reader will be used for accreditation, manually accredited voters will always be allowed to vote. Meanwhile, this can not be done until the card readers use had been properly perfected such that failures will have been reduced to its barest minimum.

        • Author’s gravatar

          Supreme Court judgement legalised the use of violence, killings, over voting to achieve the outcome of elections. It derided or pureed scorn on use of use of Card readers or technology to enhance the integrity of our elections.
          Supreme Court judgement contravenes the long held legal maxim of “Anything not against the law, is within the law”. Given that use of Card readers has provision for manual accreditation by use of incident forms, makes supreme court judgement look more of a joke. A travesty of justice, which should be probed.
          This judgement is similar to Supreme imposing the use of manual typewriters for official letters instead of use of Computers ETC. It is ridiculous.

  • Author’s gravatar

    I completely agree with Barrister Igini.
    This Supreme Court judgements defies logic. Anything not against the law is within the law.
    If TVC could be accepted without questions, PVC should equally be accepted. Given that PVC added more value to the credibility of our election process than TVC used without objections.
    Card reader is meant to add value to our election process. As no method of conducting election was prescribed by the constitution, INEC was within its rights to employ any method it choses.
    Supreme Court judgement is similar to dictating that official letters must be written by manual typewriters & not with Computers.
    The use of PVC should have been regarded as pre-election matters which should have been challenged before the elections.
    Supreme Court should be probed to ascertain if these bizarre, judgements were not induced by corruption or other forms of inducements or gratifications, including conflict of interest.