NITDA Clears IT Projects Worth Over N1trillion in 5 Months

NATIONAL Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), through its IT project clearance mandate, had assessed and cleared 62 Information Technolgy related projects worth 1,168,145,213,150 naira between January and May this year.

Mallam Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, director general, NITDA, made this known during his speech delivered by Dr Usman Gambo Abdullahi, director IT Infrastructure Solutions, at a virtual meeting organised by a subsidiary of the Agency, Office for Nigerian Content development ONC.

This is an indication of the drive by this administration to digitalise government services, as most of this projects are service based.

The event theme: "Harnessing indigenous solutions for public sector innovation and digital development", is very apt at this critical period of our digital experience.

While analysing the impact of NITDA's efforts, Inuwa said the assessment shows that about 64,878,725,488 naira were for software and software enabled projects.

This, he said, has shown that more can be achieved with a deeper collaboration between the public and private sector going forward using technology as a driver for public services.

"Therefore, for successful development and delivery of government digital services, it is significantly important that innovative Nigerian companies are engaged very early in the project from the conceptualization and design stages", he said.

He added that the effect of the pandemic on the economy, governance and public service delivery has spurred a greater urgency for the development of government digital services and digital economy for Nigeria.

The DG stated that NITDA will soon issue frameworks for the development of government digital services, and public-private sector partnership in its products as there is an urgent need for government to accelerate the delivery of government digital services for the benefit of Nigerians.

Kashifu, while elaborating on the benefits of collaborations and partnerships between the public and private sector said, it will deepen the opportunity for learning to create tailor made solutions for societal problems.

Reiterating what the DG has said, the National Coordinator of ONC, Barrister Kassim Sodangi, while giving his opening remarks said "our key objective is that, for solutions that are driven or adopted by the Federal Government, we want to encourage that beyond issuing out procurement notices and adverts, the MDAs will be able to sit down with indigenous content providers to discuss and come up with a plan or strategy to drive the development of the solution".