NITDA’s Projects Stimulating Economy, Says Angaye

The National Information and Technology Development Agency ( NITDA) which before 2007 grappled with paucity of funds which hindered its ability to implement its policy objectives and goals has begun to accelerate its engine of development. It is now engaging in various multitasks and projects in a bid to stimulate the growth of the Nigerian economy through the platform of Information Technology. It was not as if some level of development and the execution of its mandate was not noticed prior to 2007, but the level of its impact and the tempo of its activities have increased since then . Surely its engine of development was apparently revved by the promulgation of the NITDA Act of 2007 which gave it legal teeth to implement its programmes and provided it with a funding base. The Act provides that IT companies contribute a portion of their annual earning into a fund for the use of developing IT in Nigeria. For Professor Cleopas Angaye who fought doggedly to see to the enactment of the law, the Act has provided a turning pointing in the execution of the mandate of the agency. It was not an easy task getting the National Assembly to enact the Act, he says. “It (the Act) has become the catalysts for the development of IT in Nigeria and the acceleration of the actualization of the mandate of the agency and the contribution of NITDA to the success of Vision 20: 2020”, says Angaye. In a bid to move its activities to the next level, NITDA revised some of its strategies towards the end of 2011 in preparation for the work at hand. It came out with nine documents that spelt out the work that has been done in a specific sector of the economy, what is being done, what needs to be done and the prerequisites needed for the required achievement. These documents include the Nigerian National e-Infrastructure Strategy, the e-Strategy and Law Enforcement Strategy, the e-Education Strategy, the e-Government Strategy, e-Health, Private Sector Development e-Strategy, Research and Development e-Strategy, and e-Human Capital Development Strategy. All the strategies according to Angaye are part of the ICT for Development (ICT4D) strategic action plans that present Nigeria’s roadmap for the development of information and knowledge-based society and economy as a means of facilitating the realization of national socio-economic development. NITDA is currently pursuing these strategies and implementing several projects in line with the goal of using IT to achieve both the Millennium Development Goals and the Vision 20:202. For instance before the establishment of NITDA there was low level of awareness and development of IT coupled with lack of adequate infrastructures and requisite institutional framework to enhance the development of the sector. According to Angaye NITDA has now adopted a three-pronged approach of human capital development, infrastructural development and institutional capacity building to drive its goals and objectives. The approach is said to have culminated in various initiatives which include massive awareness creation, workshops and conferences. Some of the initiatives of the agency include the NEPAD’s e-school initiative, mobile Internet unit, Nigerian Cybercrime Working Group, Galaxy Backbone Plc, the CANi project that has driven uptake and spread of computers in Nigeria. Other projects which the NITDA initiatives has given birth to include the Catch Them Young Policy, Nigerian Internet Registration Association ( NIRA), the Rural Information Technology Centres ( RITC) spread across Nigeria, IT scholarship award, Cisco Regional Networking Academy, e-Government and Governance, IT Parks, Virtual Library and Development of the Nigerian ICT4D plan among others. Through the initiatives, the level of awareness on the inherent benefits of IT has improved while investment in the sector and Internet penetration statistics has increased hitting over 45 million at the last count. This has made Nigeria the fastest growing in sub Saharan Africa.