By Dele Ogbodo
The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), on Thursday opened a portal for comprehensive review
of Nigeria’s Information Communications Technology (ICT) Innovation and Entrepreneurship Vision (NIIEV).
The agency has therefore called for inputs from stakeholders into the country’s ecosystem said receipt of inputs will last from 13th to 27th of November 2018.
Following the maiden edition of NIIEV hosted in October 2017, the Director General of the agency, Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, while reiterating the objective of the meeting said it was to collectively identify the challenges of stakeholders and identify strategies to address them for a thriving technology ecosystem.
Mrs. Hadiza Umar, Head, Corporate Affairs and External Relations of the agency in a statement made available to SHARPEDGENews Online in Abuja, acknowledged that representatives from government, hubs, banks, investor networks, academia, media and technology entrepreneurs were in attendance.
The objective of the meeting according to her was to collectively identify the challenges of stakeholders and identify strategies to address them for a thriving technology ecosystem. Several representatives from Government, Hubs, banks, investor networks, academia, media and technology entrepreneurs were in attendance.
Umar said: “Furthermore, President Muhammadu Buhari, at e-Nigeria 2017, charged NITDA to develop policies and strategies that will change Nigeria’s narrative from being a tech-consuming to a tech-producing country.
“To unlock our national potential, NITDA proposes a number of urgent measures to connect, educate and enable digital innovation.
“This birthed the Nigeria ICT Innovation and Entrepreneurship Vision (NIIEV) which comprise of policy recommendations and incentives on the key components for building a tech ecosystem categorised into 3 themes: Digital Infrastructure, Education Reform, skills Development and R&D, and Supporting the Ecosystem for Innovative Entrepreneurship.”
According to her, NITDA through its subsidiary, the Office for ICT Innovation and Entrepreneurship (OIIE) has worked directly with entrepreneurs, hubs and hub networks to review the best practices across Africa and around the world to support digital transformation in Nigeria.
As part of the agency’s rulemaking process, the document has been subjected to internal reviews by some key government agencies where insightful feedback and updates were received.
“In an effort to enrich the document and in line with the Agency’s policy of participatory regulation, industry stakeholders and the general public are invited to review the document through either of the following (i) on the consultation tool at https://niiev.ictinnovation.gov.ng (ii) via www.nitda.gov.ng and click important notice (iii) via facebook chatbot at http://m.me/ngrinnovation or simply send an email to info@ictinnovation.gov.ng.” She said.