While giving his opening remarks, Director General, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Mallam Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, said, “We expect a drastic surge in digital transformation initiatives within the public sector in the coming years to keep up with the pace of digital shift."
He estimated as reported by Statista, in 2020, that the global digital transformation spending was $1.31 trillion from $1.18 trillion USD in 2019 which he said is projected that, the spending will reach 1.78 trillion by 2022. He cited another research by the International Data Corporation (IDC) that predicts the direct digital transformation investments will total $6.8 trillion between 2020 and 2023. He stated further that, the report confirmed that 65% of the world's GDP is set to be digitalised by 2022, and 70% of all organisations globally will have accelerated use of digital technologies. This he said, implies transforming existing business processes and models to drive customer engagement, employee productivity, and business resiliency. “Today, we have achieved another milestone by creating a platform for bringing together the DT-TWG members and the key players in the technology industry. "We hope this engagement will foster cooperation between the DTTWGs and technology industry players and provide a platform where experiences, achievements, and challenges will be shared”, the DG said. “We are optimistic that this will also be a platform for constructive stakeholders' inputs and buy-in and ultimately a medium for rights decisions and devising feasible strategies towards improving digital transformation maturity in the public sector” he added. Mallam Abdullahi stated that “we have ensured that the composition of DT-TWG of each Federal Public Institutions (FPIs), consists of 10 members cutting across strategic departments with at least two (2) persons from the IT/ICT/e-Government departments and three other persons from core business departments of the FPIs”. He explained that this composition is to ensure that the core business and the IT people cooperate and develop the capability to manage digital transformation projects successfully. According to Mallam Abbdullahi, criteria of membership of the DT-TWG’s mandates that the Group shall be chaired by the Director/Head of ICT/IT/e-Government except where there is no such designation. The Chief Executives are at liberty to choose the leader of the group. NITDA Boss revealed that the Agency has organised training that lasted for a month in which 442 members were certified. The DT-TWG members were taken through the basic required knowledge to carry out their responsibilities efficiently while leading digital transformation in their organisation. The Managing Director, Nigeria Communication Satellite, Mrs Abimbola Alale while giving her goodwill message said the hangout is apt as it is coming at the time the Head of Service of the Federation has directed that all government processes should be digitalised. During a goodwill message delivered by the founder and Chief Executive Officer of MainOne Ms Funke Opeke, mentioned that there is no denying the role that digital technology is playing in transforming the way businesses are carried out. She affirmed her organisations willingness to continue to partner with the Agency to develop a sustainable digital economy. Other industry heavy weights in attendance includes Executive Vice Chairman NCC, NIPOST, Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) Nigeria, Nigeria Computer Society, Delloite Nigeria, Sidmach, Backbone Connectivity limited, Ntel, Cyberspace limited and many more.
