The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has disclosed that it will host a plenary session during the 2014 Nigeria Computer Society (NCS) Conference to further encourage the use of IT tools to foster socio-economic growth across Nigeria.
The 25th National Conference of NCS takes place in Enugu, Enugu State from 23rd to 25th of July 2014. Conference theme is “Building a Knowledge-Based Economy in Nigeria: The Role of Information Technology.”
In what will be a major outing, the agency will explore the session to focus on “NITDA’s Initiative on IT Policy for States of the Federation.”
Other issues to be highlighted during the session include challenges and experiences of states that are collaborating and working with NITDA to develop their IT policies.
In addition to IT policy formulation at the national level, NITDA intends to extend IT development to other tiers of government.
The policy development process is being championed in several Nigerian states in line with the National IT policy and special consideration of the priority areas of the states.
Information from NITDA reveals that the process has been implemented in three states under the first phase while NITDA is currently working with five states under the second phase.
“The intention is to extend this initiative to all the states of the federation in order to encourage them to position IT as the main driver of their priorities areas,” said Peter Jack, NITDA’s DG.
Commenting on the agency’s plan, chairman, publicity, events and trade services of NCS, Jide Awe observed that in deciding to host a plenary session during the NCS annual conference, NITDA intends to work with NCS to create an avenue that will serve as a platform for intellectual discourse to galvanise more input in order to enrich the quality of the NITDA initiative on IT Policy for states of the federation.
With track records of success, several key organizations such as NITDA annually leverage on this NCS platform to achieve organizational goals.
The multistakeholder event, the largest annual assembly of IT professionals and stakeholders in Nigeria, while facilitating the development of IT enabled solutions to national issues of concern, also enables key agencies in the public sector and private sector firms to explore strategic IT opportunities for enhanced relevance and effectiveness.
Well thought through IT policies at all levels are critical to developing a knowledge based economy.
To ensure the effective implementation of Nigeria’s IT policy, NITDA is the government agency that “regulates, monitors, evaluates, and verifies progress on an ongoing basis under the supervision and coordination of the Federal Ministry Communication Technology.”
