NITDA unfolds government digital plan

Nigeria’s information and technology regulator, the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), has unfolded plans for the digital transformation of the country.
   
The Director-General/CEO of NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, who said the plan contains seven pillars, also said the move became necessary to reposition the sector, and make it more competitive. 

The seven pillars include: regulation to level the playing field and removes obstacles to business; capacity building to function in a knowledge-based economy; and government digital services to foster an interactive government encouraging contributions by citizens and delivery of service.
Others are local content to encourage delivery of tailor-made tech solutions for local needs; digital inclusion to promote infrastructure for citizens to access e-services; digital job creation and cybersecurity to protect Nigeria’s technology assets.
  
“These are the seven key pillars we have been working on since 2017 and we are going to review it at the end of this year to benchmark what we have achieved and come up with a new strategy for the agency,” he stated.
   
Abdullahi notes that the invitation extended to him by Dr Isa Pantami, the immediate past DG of NITDA, and current Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, prepared him for his current position.
   
According to him, since coming into NITDA under Pantami, he played a crucial role in the development of a strategic plan built on seven pillars to turn around the Nigerian IT sector, that also identified ICT as a key enabler for economic diversification.“I was very instrumental in implementing the strategy. So the strategy was developed for the agency for 2017-2020, and the strategy has about seven key pillars.