Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, Director General, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has said that the agency is collaborating with Usmanu Dan Fodio University, Sokoto and University of Lagos to introduce Postgraduate program in ICT Law for master’s degree and PhD levels.
He disclosed this to newsmen on Wednesday on the sidelines of the 27th National Conference of Nigeria Computer Society held at International Conference Center, University of Ibadan, Oyo State.
Pantami, noted that this has become necessary because all regulatory agencies require ICT lawyers to come and work for them.
He stated that the mandate of NITDA centers around two fundamental issues, IT development and regulation, adding that the two mandates require IT professionals and lawyers to develop and regulate the sector.
He said, “the agency in collaboration with other universities, like the university of Lagos and secondly Usmanu Dan Fodio University, sokoto, are introducing ICT law as a course for masters degree up to PhD level, because of the fact that we don’t have any course on ICT law in our universities and all regulatory agencies of ICT require ICT lawyers to come and work for them.
“The mandate of NITDA if you look at it critically centers around two fundamental issues, one IT development, two IT regulation.
“IT development, you always develop IT using IT professionals like computer scientist, computer engineers and many more, they are IT professional while you regulate the sector by deploying ICT lawyers, if you have ICT lawyers around then you can regulate the sector, so that is while we introduce ICT law as a course in our universities so that our country can produce many people that can regulate the sector and write many legal documents on behalf of the sector because we are to set standards, guideline and formulate policies for ICT adoption, deployment and usage all over the country.”
He equally stated that the agency activities is centered around digital inclusion with various programs of the agency at building local capacity, support startups and other businesses meet up with international standards.
This he said will boost inclusivity in technology value chain that can drive a formidable tech ecosystem for national economy growth development.
He explained that to this end the Agency has trained over 740 persons in digital technology and deployed 86 digital learning centers across the federation.
Pantimi disclosed that NITDA is running a four-year roadmap on Regulation, Capacity Building, Local Content Development, Digital Job Creation, E-Governance, Cyber Security, and Digital Inclusion.
NITDA’s vision, he said, is to be Nigeria’s prime Agency and catalyst for transforming Nigeria into a knowledge-based and IT-driven economy.
He said Strategic partnerships with leading institutions like NCS are necessary to ensure sustainable development in the sector.
He emphasized that a well-developed ICT sector will significantly improve any economy. It will reduce capital flight, create jobs, generate revenue and help to position Africa as a producer of world-class ICT products and not just consumer of such products.