National Information Technology Agency (NITDA) has restated its resolve to pursue the Nigeria’s IT Local Content inclusion, adoption and patronage of local Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) by ensuring qualitative production capacity of the operators.
Dr. Ashiru Daura, acting director-general of NITDA, stated this at a meeting between the agency’s management and representatives of local OEMs in Abuja.
Daura pledge the renewed support of NITDA as an agency to ensure adequate development of local capacity in line with Nigeria’s IT content development initiative stating that a robust performance framework was put in place by NITDA through the support of the Ministry of Communication Technology to ensure makers of local OEMs deliver high quality products of International Standards Organisation (ISO) with Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) put in place in order to measure their efficiency in the market and consumer satisfaction.
He noted that in a bid to achieve the lofty objective, the agency recently at the second National Council on Communications Technology (NCCT) presented a memorandum on the need for the patronage of local OEMs while the NCCT in its final communiqué adopted the prayers of NITDA by recommending that all states and the Federal Capital Territory should promote the Student Computer Ownership Scheme by encouraging the adoption of local OEMs for the programme.
Daura pointed out that some of the observations of the council members and some general experiences of Nigerian’s in their purchase and usage of some locally made PC brands included lack of dependable warranty and inadequate or non-existent after sales services.
He appealed to states and local government areas to help push for the development of local content as a substantial source of revenue earning for the country.
The DG stressed that any sourcing and procuring of computer hardware from local OEMs for which there was local capacity for manufacturing, assembling, testing, deployment and maintenance should be done with some proviso that included firstly that the said OEMs must maintain ISO 9001:2008 or any other relevant quality certification.
More so, that local OEMS contracting to supply any statewide ICT projects must have first level contact centres to handle customer queries. In addition those local OEMs contracting to supply any statewide ICT projects must have regionally located fulfillment centres as well as regionally located return/repair workshop capable of handling after sales service and adequate warranty service issues.
Responding, Ibrahim Balogun of Brian Computers thanked the management of NITDA for its support for the local OEMs makers so far and assured the DG of their continuous improvement on the quality of their brands.
He noted that mechanisms had been put in place to support after sales services including direct access to download software from their websites at no cost as well as using their resellers or retail outlets to return hardware to their workshops for rectification of any default therein.
Also speaking, Will Anyaegbunam, managing director/chief executive officer of Beta Computers, commended NITDA for been in the forefront of pushing for nation-wide adoption of indigenous OEMs recalling that the last time an interactive meeting of this nature took place was about four years ago.
Ayaegbunam noted that the fact that technology was in constant evolution means there would always be challenges to which they were all ready to step up the game.
He appealed for greater support, cooperation and proper feedback mechanism to enhance improvement in their services.