NITDA saved N10bn in 2yrs through IT regulations — DG

The Director General of National Information Technology Development Agency [NITDA] Dr Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami has said the agency saved N10billion between 2016 and this year through proper regulations of IT sector in the country.

Dr Pantami disclosed this in Abuja at the weekend after he was given an award by the Nigerian Union of Journalists [NUJ].

“And the first thing we started doing was to ensure that all IT projects in the MDAs are cleared, technically and professionally executed because before I came on board, many MDAs saw IT projects as a conduit for siphoning money because when they went for budget defence, most of our legislatures do not know what IT is all about.

“So, people find it easy to manipulate them and the budget questions.

“With this IT clearance, huge amount of money has been saved, about N10bn so far, not to talk about the technical values added’’, the NITDA DG said.

He said proper IT regulation only started in the country in 2016 as there was no time that the IT sector had to be regulated.

He said through regulation NITDA promotes cyber security and ensure that local companies, indigenous ICT products are deployed in the MDAs.

He also said, ‘’We do not allow importation of IT products unless we discovered we do not have the capacity in the country.

‘’MDAs are no more using ICT to syphon money unnecessarily. We may not stop them all but I can say at least 90% has been blocked so far.’’ passed with unnecessary