‘Nigeria projects N402b for acquisition of information technology

Nigeria has projected to spend N402 billion on acquisition of Information Technology (IT) goods and services by the year 2020.

Director-General of National Information Development Agency (NITDA), Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim, who disclosed this at the Digital Government Summit organised by Microsoft Nigeria yesterday in Abuja, said that technologies, like Cloud Computing, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and block-chain applications, would constitute a chunk of these purchases by the government.

He said the agency had mapped out guidelines to enable the deployment of these technologies such as the Nigerian Cloud Policy Framework, which he said, is in advanced stage and a framework for the adoption of block-chains for critical government’s functions, adding that NITDA is also engaging critical stakeholders to develop these guidelines and regulations.to create conducive conditions for innovation within government.

“The government is leveraging information technology systems to provide real time services to citizens, optimise utilisation of hard-earned state resources and to enable it fight against corruption, which has become a major stumbling block to accelerated development of our dear nation,” he said.

Besides, the director-general said that the Federal Government had through a circular in August, this year, directed all Ministries, Departments, Agencies (MDAs) and government-owned companies to submit all IT projects to NITDA for clearance to avoid cases of projects being duplicated through corrupt individuals or MDAs.