By Dele Ogbodo
The Minister-designate and Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Dr. Ibrahim Pantami,
over the week end said government is targeting 35% patronage of cloud computing through the Nigeria Cloud Computing Policy (NCCP), which is to effect immediately.
In what appeared his last assignment at the agency, after 4 years of being at the helm of affairs, the out-going DG, made the disclosure at the stakeholders and media engagement on signing of 5 more regulatory instruments that will accelerate the country’s digitalization and ICT adoption, adding: “All these instruments are issued to address various challenges facing us as a nation towards effective ICT adoption.”
According to him, the new cloud computing policy is a set of policy statements that articulate government’s strategic plan and direction for cloud computing adoption in the public sector and by Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), that provide ICT-enabled services to government.
Computing resources, Pantami, said, could be expensive to deploy, difficult to access or manage by most public institutions and SMEs, adding that the policy will nip in the bud these challenges.
He said: “The Policy has a ‘cloud first’ value proposition aimed at promoting cloud computing as a ‘first choice’ consideration for acquiring and deploying computing resources by public institutions and SMEs that provide digital-enabled services to the government except where the cause of deployment is related to national security concerns or cloud is not the best option politically and economically.
“The goal is to ensure a 30% increase in the adoption of cloud computing by 2024 among Federal public institutions (FPIs) and SMEs that provide digital-enbled services to the government. The policy also targets 35% increase in cloud computing investments by 2024.”
The Nigerian Content Development in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) guideline as amended, he said, was launched in 2013 to help accelerate the development of indigenous skills, technology transfer, use of indigenous manpower and local manufacturing.
According to him, the instrument also takes into account the vision, objectives, strategic goals and role of NITDA and NCC being the two regulating institutions for the ICT Industry.
He said: “There are three core focus areas of the guidelines: driving indigenous innovation, developing the local ICT Industry and establishing Intellectual Property regulation and protection standards.
“There are three core focus areas of the guidelines: driving indigenous innovation, developing the local ICT Industry and establishing intellectual property regulation and protection standards.
Pantami, assures that full implementation and compliance with the provisions of the guidelines will build an ICT industry and market that will make Nigerians proud.
On the Nigeria e-government interoperability framework, he admitted that MDAs have a serious challenge of interoperability of government information technology systems, sharing and exchange of information among public institutions.
The challenge, he added has been a clog in the wheel of efficient delivery of government digital services.
He said: “Nigeria as a developing country has her own share of good experience of e-government or ICT adoption for streamlining and improving governance. Such good initiatives where Nigeria has recorded successes in using ICT to drive government policies include Treasury Single Account (TSA), Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS), Government Information Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS), Bank Verification Number (BVN), e-Taxation, e-passport among others. Most of the times, it is difficult for these systems to talk to each other.
“This has created unnecessary inefficiency, inconvenience, delay in service delivery and caused citizens to pay more for government digital services.”
The DG, averred that the Nigeria ICT Innovation and Entrepreneurship Vision (NIIEV) is a compendium of policy recommendations and incentives designed to strengthen the Nigerian technology ecosystem.
This, he said consists of digital infrastructure development, education reform, skills development and R&D as well as support for ICT entrepreneurship ecosystem innovation.
“We have been engaging investors, hubs, entrepreneurs, innovators, academia and government to collectively identify challenges encountered in the ecosystem and determine ways to address those challenges.
“NITDA produced the NIIEV as a policy response to the aggregated demands of the tech ecosystem. The NIIEV will be implemented through the Office {0,151 innovation and Entrepreneurship (011E) a subsidiary of NITDA.”
The last instrument which makes the entire framework ten is the guidelines for ICT adoption in tertiary institutions. He said there is need to ensure a digitally conducive environment in the country’s tertiary institutions as modern education demands an appreciation of core IT principles, systems and methodology for such academic can be regarded as functional.