NITDA charges stakeholders on operability of smart city initiative

The National information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has called for more concerted efforts of all stakeholders to achieve the nation’s smart city initiative.

This initiative according to NITDA is capable of addressing the socioeconomic challenges of the country if well harnessed.

This was stated at the stakeholders’ engagement for National Smart Policy Framework (NSPF) held at Sandralia Hotel, Abuja, Thursday.

NITDA DG Dr Isa Ali Pantami said, a country that wants to be successful must be disruptive. Stating that global digital initiatives should be domesticated in Nigeria in consideration of its peculiarities.

He said, “Supporting the development of Smart Initiatives is very important to us in Nigeria especially some of us in tech industry.

“We acknowledge the great challenges ahead especially in the areas of investment and funding, infrastructure and resources, standards and architecture interoperability, insecurity and privacy etc. but we must collectively agree to take the risks.

NITDA as the country IT regulator and developer will be working tirelessly with relevant stakeholders to mitigate the influence known and unknown challenges in this area.

“The world is moving into an internet economy, a hyperconnected world where data  is the most valuable asset. African government especially Nigeria standing as regional leader will need to proactively do something about the new economy and its policy challenges in preparing for the disruption and pressure it brings to societies especially in the area of job and economic opportunities.

He added that: “With the introduction of new technologies into cities through the concept of smart cities, there is an upsurge in IoT market use cases in core sectors including energy  smart city, connected health, connected industry, connected buildings, smart agriculture, connected vehicles and smart supply chain promoting about 760 IoT vendors in hardware, software and connectivity providers spreading across over 70 countries.

“It is believed that we cannot rely on meeting our national vision on sustainable economic development through conventional policies, approaches and tools. Hence, we need to make the best use of Nigeria’s innovative potentials through a well thought out Nigeria smart policy framework for promoting smart initiatives.” 

Speaking on understanding Nigeria Smart Initiative (NSI) and the purpose of National Smart Policy Framework (NSP) NITDA e-Government Development and Regulations officer, Dr Agbali Mohammed said, the deployment and use of smart solutions/ applications are capable of increasingly creating unimaginable values and disrupting every aspect of society with innovations that improves human existence. These smart solutions are used to address 21st century global challenges across different sectors and industries.

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