TECHDIGEST – The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved the Implementation of Strategies for the Enhancement of the Quality of Government Digital Technology Projects and Services during its meeting on the 9th of March, 2022.

This followed the presentation of a memo by Professor Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy.

A statement signed by Dr Femi Adeluyi, Technical Assistant (Research & Development) to the Minister, shows the approval will enable the implementation of strategies for the enforcement of the IT Project Clearance by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), in accordance with the NITDA Act (2007), and under the supervision of the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy.

ALSO READ : FG Orders MDAs To Migrate To Nigerian Government Second-Level Domains

The implementation of the IT Project Clearance process is in alignment with the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS) for a Digital Nigeria, as well as the Nigeria Government Interoperability Framework and Nigeria Government Enterprise Architecture, among others. Furthermore, it provides many benefits for the country, including the following:

• IT projects are not unduly duplicated;
  the technology being implemented is up to date;
• ensuring that there is an indigenous capacity for after-sales-service to sustain the project beyond its initial deployment;
• supporting the integration of IT systems and services by Federal Public Institutions to save cost, reduce corruption, promote shared services, enable interoperability and improve efficiency;
• ensuring that the technology and services procured are suitable for the country from the point of view of security and the environment, among others; and
• the projects promote indigenous content, with preference being given to indigenous companies where capacity, product or service exists.

The implementation of the IT Projects Clearance process has already recorded tremendous success.

For example, in 2021, there was unprecedented total of 280 new applications for clearance, of which 258 projects were successfully cleared and a total savings of N24,403,266,842.86, estimated at 343.2% increase in savings compared to 2020.

Furthermore, there was also a significant increase in the use of the IT Clearance Portal in the year 2021- a total of 248 new users from 52 Federal Public Institutions (FPIs) were registered on the portal.

“The approval of Council will further enhance the benefits of the IT Clearance process. Council’s approval also mandates FPIs to obtain a Quality Assurance certificate from the NITDA Regulatory Instruments Enforcement Team for any project that is up to N1,000,000,000 (one billion naira).

“As part of the implementation of the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS), the Ministry will continue to position Nigeria to take advantage of emerging technologies in order to transform Nigeria into a sustainable and secure digital economy”, the statement reads.

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TECHDIGEST – The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved the Implementation of Strategies for the Enhancement of the Quality of Government Digital Technology Projects and Services during its meeting on the 9th of March, 2022.

This followed the presentation of a memo by Professor Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy.

A statement signed by Dr Femi Adeluyi, Technical Assistant (Research & Development) to the Minister, shows the approval will enable the implementation of strategies for the enforcement of the IT Project Clearance by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), in accordance with the NITDA Act (2007), and under the supervision of the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy.

ALSO READ : Buhari Endorses Nigerian Start-Up Bill for NASS – Prof Pantami

The implementation of the IT Project Clearance process is in alignment with the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS) for a Digital Nigeria, as well as the Nigeria Government Interoperability Framework and Nigeria Government Enterprise Architecture, among others. Furthermore, it provides many benefits for the country, including the following:

• IT projects are not unduly duplicated;
  the technology being implemented is up to date;
• ensuring that there is an indigenous capacity for after-sales-service to sustain the project beyond its initial deployment;
• supporting the integration of IT systems and services by Federal Public Institutions to save cost, reduce corruption, promote shared services, enable interoperability and improve efficiency;
• ensuring that the technology and services procured are suitable for the country from the point of view of security and the environment, among others; and
• the projects promote indigenous content, with preference being given to indigenous companies where capacity, product or service exists.

The implementation of the IT Projects Clearance process has already recorded tremendous success.

For example, in 2021, there was unprecedented total of 280 new applications for clearance, of which 258 projects were successfully cleared and a total savings of N24,403,266,842.86, estimated at 343.2% increase in savings compared to 2020.

Furthermore, there was also a significant increase in the use of the IT Clearance Portal in the year 2021- a total of 248 new users from 52 Federal Public Institutions (FPIs) were registered on the portal.

“The approval of Council will further enhance the benefits of the IT Clearance process. Council’s approval also mandates FPIs to obtain a Quality Assurance certificate from the NITDA Regulatory Instruments Enforcement Team for any project that is up to N1,000,000,000 (one billion naira).

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TECHDIGEST – The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved the National Policy on the Nigerian government second-level domains and ordered all federal public institutions to obtain a Nigerian government second-level domain.

The country’s highest decision-making body gave the approval during its meeting on the 16th of February, 2022 based on the presentation of a memo by Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Professor Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami.

By law, all federal public institutions are to obtain a Nigerian government second-level domain from the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), and “migrate to that platform with immediate effect. As part of the implementation of the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS),” notes Technical Assistant (Research & Development) to Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Femi Adeluyi in a statement issued in Abuja.

Adding: “The scope covers the Nigerian government second-level domain and email services on .gov.ng, .mil.ng, .edu.ng, .sch.ng, and any other Nigerian government owned second-level domains that could be approved in the future.”

The policy was developed to strengthen public confidence in the use of digital technologies and participation in the digital economy. The policy is also in line with the implementation of the Nigerian e-Government Master Plan, approved by the FEC in August 2018.

The master plan has a vision to create a world class open and digitalized government that connects with people to drive efficiency in public administration, responsiveness of civil services and transparency in governance leading to improvement of the quality of life of Nigerians.

The increasing rate of cyber-related incidences has inspired countries to develop policy instruments to effectively regulate and manage their use of information and communication technologies in government institutions, specifically electronic correspondences within the government. Several countries have put policies in place to ensure that official correspondences are only conducted using approved domains and platforms in government institutions. The use of generic domains and private emails for government businesses and correspondences impedes the identity, security and global recognition of the Nigerian government on the Internet.

Furthermore, the use of private emails for Government business is a major limitation to the capabilities to archive and back-up sensitive Government data thereby making it difficult to preserve historical correspondences and documents hosted on non-Government servers. Similarly, government documents that should be deleted or destroyed after a period of retention are permanently hosted on unsecure servers.

The policy will be implemented by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), under the supervision of the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy. It seeks to promote transparency in governance; protecting the Nigerian cyberspace; and promotion of the Digital Nigeria agenda. It also seeks to accelerate the adoption of the second level domain (.gov.ng, .edu.ng, .mil.ng) under the country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD.ng) with the main objective to eliminate the use of top-level domains for government business and the use of private emails for official correspondences by the end of year 2022.

The policy gives direction for the enforcement of the mandatory use of the Nigerian government second-level domains by all federal public institutions, and recommends its adoption by states and local governments. The scope covers the Nigerian government second-level domain and email services on .gov.ng, .mil.ng, .edu.ng, .sch.ng, and any other Nigerian government owned second-level domains that could be approved in the future.

As part of the implementation of this policy, federal public institutions are to obtain a Nigerian government second-level domain from NITDA and migrate to that platform with immediate effect. As part of the implementation of the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS), the ministry will continue to position Nigeria to leverage technology in order to transform Nigeria into a sustainable and secure digital economy.

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TECHDIGEST – The Federal Government has approved a national policy on 5G networks for Nigeria’s digital economy.

This was following a presentation by the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof Isa Pantami, during a Federal Executive Council meeting on Wednesday.

A statement issued by the Minister’s Technical Assistant on Information Technology, Dr Femi Adeluyi, revealed that the implementation of the national policy is with immediate effect.

According to the statement, “The national policy has been developed over a period of two years, due to the need for extensive stakeholder engagement and the need to ensure adequate public awareness and sensitisation. The stakeholder engagement was thorough and multi-sectoral in nature. It also took into account the report of the 3-month 5G trials that commenced on the 25th of November 2019. The report critically reviewed and studied the health and security implications of deploying 5G in Nigeria.

“Leading international organisations such as the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), an organ of the United Nations, have confirmed that the deployment of 5G networks leave no adverse health effect and are safe. 5G networks offer significant advantages over the current technologies. Some of its advantages include much lower latency, higher bandwidth, greater device density, longer battery life for nodes and greater network flexibility. Several countries have already commenced the deployment of 5G and are enjoying its benefits. These countries include the United States, United Kingdom, Republic of Korea, South Africa and Lesotho, to mention but a few.

“The National Frequency Management Council (NFMC), chaired by Minister Pantami, will soon release spectrum to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) for the Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) that meet all the required conditions.

“The NCC, as the regulator of the telecommunications sector, will continue engaging stakeholders with a view to developing the regulatory instruments required for the successful deployment of the technology in Nigeria.”

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TECHDIGEST – The Honourable Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, PhD is highly delighted to hear of the growth of the contribution of the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the second quarter of 2021 (Q2 2021). The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) indicated this in the ‘Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product Report’ for Q2 2021 released today, the 26th of August, 2021.
It is noteworthy that the ICT sector contributed 17.92% to the total real GDP in Q2 2021, 20.54% higher than its contribution a year earlier and in the preceding quarter, in which it accounted for 14.91%. This is the highest contribution of ICT to the GDP and is truly unprecedented.
According to the NBS, “Nigeria’s GDP grew by 5.01%(year-on-year) in real terms in the second quarter of 2021, marking three consecutive quarters of growth following the negative growth rates recorded in the second and third quarters of 2020.” The negative growth was triggered by COVID-19, not only in Nigeria but also globally.  Even within that period, the ICT sector in Nigeria continued to experience positive growth.  The oil sector contributed 7.42% to total real GDP in Q2 2021, down from figures recorded in the preceding quarter, where it contributed 9.25%. The non-oil sector grew by 6.74% and contributed 92.58% to the GDP.

The Honorable Minister notes that the growing contribution of the ICT sector to the GDP is as a result of the commitment of the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR to the development of the digital economy.  The 16 National Policies developed by the Ministry, the 1,667 projects and programmes, the large scale digital skills and general capacity building efforts, stakeholder engagement and creation of an enabling environment have all played an important role in this achievement.

The support of President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, has contributed immensely to the impressive developments in the sector. The unprecedented contribution of ICT to Nigeria’s GDP can also be attributed to the dynamic and results-oriented leadership of the sector, which has been acknowledged and appreciated by a wide spectrum of the stakeholders in the sector, both locally and internationally.  For example, Mr Houlin Zhao, the Secretary General of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) commended the Minister for Nigeria’s “accelerated digital transformation”. Similarly, the Chairman of the United States-Nigeria Council (USNC) also commended him for the “commitment to diversifying Nigeria’s great economy through digital technology and innovation.”
The GDP Report has shown how critical the ICT sector is to the growth of our country’s digital economy and, by extension, the general economy.  The Honourable Minister renews his call to all sectors to take advantage of the Federal Government’s new focus on the digital economy to enable and improve their processes through the use of ICTs.  This would enhance the output of all the sectors of the economy and boost Nigeria’s GDP.

Dr Femi Adeluyi
Technical Assistant (Information Technology) to the
Honourable Minister of Communications and Digital Economy
26th August 2021

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TECH DIGEST – The Federal Executive Council, Nigeria’s highest decision making organ, yesterday approved the sum of N8.9billion to build an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Park on a 4,200 square meter land in Abuja.

In a statement signed and distributed earlier today by Dr ‘Femi Adeluyi, Technical Assistant (Information Technology) to the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, the approval was subject to a memo presented by the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Pantami at the meeting, which was held virtually.

The statement disclosed that the Park will come with state-of-the-art and will accommodate the National ICT Exhibition Centre, as well as Museum for ICT and postal services, where technology-related innovations by Nigerians will be showcased.

According to the statement, the National ICT Park will be supported by the National Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship Centre (NDIEC) that was earlier presented by the Minister and approved by the FEC on the 11th of November, 2020 and whose groundbreaking was done recently by Dr Pantami.

All the parastatals of the Ministry will be involved in managing the National Centres.

The National ICT Park would be a focal point for the supervision of both public and private ICT hubs in the country. The Park will serve as a centre for National ICT Policy formulation, Research and Development. Through it, the Federal Government will provide the enabling environment for creative Nigerians to come up with innovative technologies.

The Park will have a number of benefits including boosting the digital economy, provision of space and environment for the growth of innovation-driven enterprises (IDEs), serving as an incubator for cutting-edge technology and a mentorship platform for innovators, amongst others. It will provide a central location for Nigerian innovators with vibrant and developmental ideas to receive mentorship and all that they need to thrive.

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