NITDA to stop N37.8bn MDAs projects

The Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Dr Isa Ibrahim Pantami said the agency is working with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to stop the annual estimated N37.8 billion wasted on frivolous ICT projects.

Dr Pantami disclosed this yesterday during a media interaction at the ongoing GITEX in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, according to a statement from the agency.

He said the action became necessary as some Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) abandon local IT companies and go abroad for their IT procurements, saying “This would be curbed through enforcing NITDA Act that says all MDAs must get clearance from NITDA for any IT project they want to embark upon to ensure those projects are implementable.”

Pantami noted that a NITDA review of an MDA’s IT project recently resulted in saving government N500 million.

He said the agency was working to reduce $2 billion (about N720 billion) being lost by Nigeria to importation of foreign technologies. This would be achieved through “Developing our ICT ecosystem for the indigenous IT companies and for start-up, by offering them an enabling environment in terms of policy and laws to operate is one of the ways Nigeria can adopt to curb annual $2 billion (N720 billion) to capital flight.”