By Abdulsalam Mahmud

TECHDIGEST – While major players in the Information Technology sector are still debating the so-called controversial provisions in a proposed bill in the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) Act, the Director-General/CEO of agency, Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi has proven to be forthright and focused tech savvy.

Kashifu Abdullahi early in the year disclosed that to keep up with the pace of innovation that has swept the country, there should be a realignment of the Act with “tenets and ideals of the Fourth Industrial Revolution” and Nigeria’s Digital Economy Policy.

He said the objectives of NITDA’s Act has always been to create a regulatory framework for the development of the Nigerian information technology sector and digital economy, including promoting and implementation of policies that support indigenous content, access to digital services, investments in the sector, adoption of emerging technology, innovation, research and development, including the rights of the citizens and national interest.

While the contents of the bill is yet to be made public, it is curious that some operators have raised concerns about some provisions of the proposed act which require technology companies operating in Nigeria to get a license, pay pre-tax profit levies, and NITDA will be able to sanction whoever (person or company) that operates contrary to the new Act’s provisions. I wonder what could be the fear of the operators on provision that will protect the sector.

Meanwhile, one cannot be economical with fact to assert that Mallam Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi is a revolutionary. In just two years as Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), the story of the agency is not the same again.

He has been steadily building upon the foundation laid by previous occupants of NITDA as its fifth DG coming after Dr. Isa Ali Pantami who is now the Minister of Communication and Digital Economy.

Without gainsaying, Inuwa Abdullahi, has been driving the agency to fulfil its core mandates in consonance with the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS) of the federal government.

A renowned technology expert, Kashifu assumed office as DG after officially joining the agency in 2017, climbing into the position with over 15 years of experience in IT operations, and business transformation, with professional certifications in networking, telecommunications, service management and solutions design.

Kashifu is a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) trained strategist and the first Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE) in Nigeria’s public sector. He also undertook leadership and management courses at Harvard University in the USA, University of Cambridge in the U.K. and IMD Business School in Switzerland.

Prior to joining NITDA, he assumed various positions in technology engineering at the Galaxy Backbone and later went on to work as Technology Architect at the Central Bank of Nigeria in 2014. While working in the CBN, Kashifu also doubled as Technical Assistant to the then DG at NITDA, Dr Isa Pantami.

Since assuming office two years ago, according to a seasoned technology journalist, Mr. Inyene Ibanga, Kashifu has seen to the development and expansion of the tech ecosystem into communities, schools, and innovation driven enterprises (IDEs), thereby providing opportunity for various sectors of the economy to leverage technology to transform business models, enhance productivity and efficiency, while also creating jobs and wealth for operators.

The recent introduction of the Strategic Roadmap and Action Plan (SRAP) 2021 – 2024 stands out as one of the landmark achievement of NITDA under the leadership of the current D.G.

Another programme initiated towards the actualisation of the federal government Digital Nigeria project is the recent commencement of the National Public Key Infrastructure (NPKI) for Root Certification Authority (RCA) for Country Signing Certification Authority (CSCA) and Country Verification Certification Authority (CVCA) of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

In a nutshell, the national PKI will guarantee secure communication for all online services, provide security against unauthorised access and disclosure of stored information by addressing the fundamentals of cyber security – confidentiality, integrity, authentication, and non-repudiation.”

The PKI will surely enhance e-government and digital economy transformations through secure data exchanges and authentication for electronic transactions protection by the banking sector and its regulator, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

Also worthy of note is that in the last two years, NITDA has launched several programmes, such as the Nigeria Digital Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Startup Policy (NDIESP), NITDA Digital Innovation Entrepreneurship Centre, and the state-of-the-art Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (NCAIR).

For the records, the National Digital Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Startup Policy (NDISEP) is made up of five priority areas, namely, Advancing Human Capital, Unlocking Access to Capital, Enabling Infrastructure, Boosting Demand, and Promoting Innovative Entrepreneurship.

The policy, among other things, is formulated to achieve a digital innovation and entrepreneurship driven nation that would become a norm for improvement in the areas of digital technologies.

This will be realised through automation, smart processes and ICT solutions, while applying to appropriate stakeholders in government, innovation-driven enterprises, consumers of innovation, technology start-ups, innovation hubs and labs, investors, academia, funding agencies, civil society organisations, service providers, and others into the policy.

At the moment, NITDA is coordinating the establishment of National Digital Innovation Entrepreneurship Centre to entrench an innovation-driven culture among citizens by serving as platform for creating value and prosperity among the teeming populace. Similar centres are to be replicated across the six geo-political zones in the country.

In what could best be described as its most ambitious programme yet, NITDA has set up the National Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (NCAIR) as a special facility for the promotion of research and development on emerging technologies and their practical application by providing solutions to Nigeria’s domestic problems.

The state-of-the-art facility, along with its modern digital fabrication laboratory, is a digital innovation and research facility focused on Artificial Intelligence (AI), Robotics and Drones, Internet of Things (IoT), and other emerging technologies, targeted at transforming the Nigerian digital economy, in line with the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS).

Most importantly, NCAIR is also focused on creating a thriving ecosystem for innovation-driven entrepreneurship (IDE), job creation and national development through collaborations with academic institutions and other agencies, research and development consultancy and high-tech products, and services development.

Kashifu’s first year in office witnessed a multitude of accomplishments, which included issuance of supplementary regulation to strengthen of the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation (NDPR). This is to enhance data security and safety for all Nigerians and inauguration of the Data Breach Investigation Team, in collaboration with the office of the Inspector General of Police.

During the period, NITDA was able to address over 790 data regulation issues by tracking and reporting data infraction cases to the Police. Equally, NITDA’s robust implementation of the NDPR under Kashifu yielded more than 2700 jobs and opened up the data security industry worth more than N2.5 billion, within a year.

Still within that, NITDA set up three IT hubs, four innovation and incubation parks, six IT community centres and three IT capacity-building centres in higher institutions of learning, as well as in unserved and underserved communities across the country.

Under Kashifu, NITDA also held capacity building programmes for over 650 artisans across four geo-political zones, and 200 IT centres managers across the country, organised periodic innovation contests such as Future-Hack, where participants receive funding and mentorship to develop marketable products and services.

Similarly, it conducted various entrepreneurship training programmes on ICT for 200 women, where they were provided with laptops pre-installed with the requisite e-resources as support for their start-ups, which generated more than 500 jobs.

The agency, through its strategic relations with tech entrepreneurs, supported 246 start-ups and 125 IT hubs and ecosystems builders were supported through Nigeria ICT Innovation and Entrepreneurship Vision (NIIEV). In the process, NITDA’s programmes within the period have resulted in the employment of about 30,000 youths.

The agency has also set up a Virtual Startup Clinic, mostly for young people to meet with mentors, successful entrepreneurs, investors, industry specialists, business consultants and hub operators to solve problems and challenges they were facing during the pandemic.

Under the leadership and direction of Kashifu, NITDA floated the National Adopted Village for Smart Agriculture (NAVSA) initiative designed by the Minister of Communication and Digital Economy to take small scale farmers to commercial level using a performance-based approach. This has resulted in the empowerment of 145 farmers to utilise digital, smart and precision technology to improve farm yields.

To further expand the knowledge and skills capacity of the citizens, the agency embarked on Massive Online Open Courses initiative for Nigeria’s tertiary institutions to prioritise e-learning in the country.

Despite the pandemic, the agency delivered digital skills and literacy to over 25,000 Nigerians in 2020, distributed over 2000 laptops in driving this computer literacy, and tracked 6386 new jobs and roles created through its interventions.

From the foregoing, within two years of Kashifu’s foresight and guidance, with the support and endorsement of Dr Isa Pantami, NITDA is not leaving anything to chance in its determination to drive Nigeria towards a digital world as it relentless explores the use and adoption of Blockchain Technology, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Robotics, data management and strategy for adoption into the digital economy.

Abdulsalam Mahmud writes from Wuye District Abuja

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TECH DIGEST – Today, the ever-evolving digital technology is opening up limitless opportunities for innovation-driven enterprises to adopt new business models, ideas, and processes that are equally enabled by new technological innovations. Business leaders have incorporated these innovative features and capabilities into their business strategies.

Countries achieve economic stability when companies and jobs are delivering high value products and services in all sectors. They suffer an economic downturn once those companies/businesses are no longer able to contribute high-value products or services to drive the national economy.
Innovation driven entrepreneurship is highly needed to speed up economic recovery, as the world adjusts to the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic. This implies that any economy that desires to fix the damage caused by the global health crisis must walk the path of innovation-driven entrepreneurship.
Innovation driven enterprises (IDEs) are businesses that bring innovations to the market by helping to deliver high-value products or services that customers are willing to pay for. IDEs are better positioned to stimulate the expansion of the digital economy.

Beyond just creating startups, advanced digital economies are giving priority to the creation of more innovation-driven enterprises. These enterprises have been recognised as catalysts for economic growth, due to their potentials to create jobs, boost production, and increase prosperity.

Innovation-driven enterprises can focus on a wide range of areas, such as design innovation, market innovation, and technology innovation to increase the value of products and service delivery to customers within and outside their immediate geographic locations.
Although most of them are based in urban centres, innovation-driven enterprises are bringing solutions and added value to products and services in agriculture, education, health, transportation, banking and finance, trade and commerce, just to name a few.

Andela, Flutterwave, Paystack, Uber, Bolt, 54Gene, Konga, Myclinic, Gradely, PrepClass, ThriveAgric, and FarmCrowdy are some of the top innovation-driven enterprises in Nigeria.

In Nigeria, an estimated 41.5 million small businesses have created about 84 per cent of the jobs, while also contributing about 48 per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

There are indications that the Federal Government is looking in the direction of nurturing more innovation driven enterprises (IDEs) startups, as part of the effort to achieve the digital Nigeria project.

Consequently, the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), with the approval of the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, presented the Nigeria Digital Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Startups Policy (NDIESP) to the tech industry stakeholders.

The NDIESP is aimed at achieving a digital innovation and entrepreneurship driven nation that would become a leading player in digital technology through the five priority areas of Advancing Human Capital, Unlocking Access to Capital, Enabling Infrastructure, Boosting Demand, and Promoting Innovative Entrepreneurship.
It is expected that the NDIESP, based on digital innovation and entrepreneurship, would help fast-track the recovery of all sectors of the economy by supporting the discovery and adoption of indigenous solutions for domestic problems.

Essentially, the objectives of the policy include supporting the development and growth of a sustainable digital innovation ecosystem; promoting innovation and entrepreneurship by harnessing the creative capacity of Nigerians for economic and social development; and leveraging digital innovation and entrepreneurship for job creation and youth empowerment.

It will also promote research, indigenous content development and adoption, while protecting the intellectual property of indigenous innovators; and increasing investment opportunities in innovation, to make technology entrepreneurship an enabler for all sectors of the nation’s economy.

The NDIESP applies to relevant stakeholders in the tech ecosystem, such as government institutions, innovation-driven enterprises, consumers of innovation, technology startups, innovation hubs and labs, investors, academia, funding agencies, civil society organisations, service providers, among others.

Under the policy, companies would be encouraged to use automation, smart processes, and ICT solutions to produce new innovative products and services that would result in more wealth and prosperity across sectors of the economy.
As such, the NDIESP encourages stakeholders to devise various innovative approaches for the successful transformation of Nigeria’s digital economy and to position the country to actively participate in the global digital economy.

While presenting the NDIESP to stakeholders, the Director-General of NITDA, Mallam Kashifu Inuwa noted that the policy has the potential to boost economic diversification, and solicited the collaborative effort of stakeholders to ensure positive outcomes.

Represented by Dr Usman Gambo Abdullahi, the agency’s Director of IT Infrastructure Solutions, Kashifu urged that more attention should also be paid to the curricular that are being used to teach in schools, so as to ensure they are relevant to the digital economy.

“We are all aware that there is no innovation where new knowledge does not exist. The most innovative countries in the world that control the market share of the $11.5 trillion global digital economies are the countries with immense public and private sectors that are funding research and development. We must commit to accelerating our research and development; beginning with our intellectual property environment and solving the underlying problems of funding for innovation research.

“Even as we put all these in place, we must also commit to promoting digital entrepreneurship amongst our youth by all means necessary. We must also put in place the framework that boosts demand for digital products in the economy through government patronage by procurement of these digital innovation products”, he added.

As it stands, the success of Nigeria Digital Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Startups Policy would be determined largely by the level of coordination and implementation, as well as proactive engagement between the public institutions and stakeholders from different segments of the digital technology ecosystem.

Hopefully, this policy should effectively address issues of funding, taxation, protection for indigenous tech enterprises, breaches of local content regulations, the use of indigenous innovative solutions in automation of public sector services for an efficient, transparent, and prosperous digital economy.

Inyene Ibanga is Managing Editor Techdigest.ng and writes from Wuye District, Abuja.

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TECH DIGEST – As part of efforts by the Federal Government of Nigeria to grow the nation’s economy through digital technologies, the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has said its Nigeria Digital Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Startup Policy (NDIESP) is designed to ensure the country earns a share from the $11.5 trillion global digital economies.

Indeed, the agency, under supervision of the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy has made a second presentation of the NDIESP to the public, particularly IT stakeholders for further review and additional input, in line with National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS) for a digital Nigeria.

NITDA explained that the policy being championed by the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy comprises six priority thrusts namely: advancing human capital, unlocking access to capital, enabling infrastructure, boosting demand, supporting R&D, and promoting innovative entrepreneurship, adding that the policy is formulated to achieve a digital innovation and entrepreneurship-driven nation.

Having exited from recession, the NDIESP proposes that digital innovation and entrepreneurship would help fast track the recovery of other traditional economic sectors by supporting the provision and adoption of indigenous and tailor-made solutions for nationwide implementation of the policy through automation, smart processes and ICT solutions.

The NITDA Director-General, Mallam Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, while making his presentation earlier at the public sector stakeholders’ engagement organised by the agency, disclosed that the idea behind the formulation of the policy is to bring to the table, different and innovative approaches in realizing President Muhammadu Buhari’s vision for the country.

The DG, who was represented by Director ITIS, Dr. Usman Gambo Abdullahi, pointed out that for digital transformation to become a reality, Nigeria must pay attention to harnessing the quality and relevance of its population, while it continues to maintain the 60:40 ratio of STEM students in universities to other disciplines, adding that more attention should be paid to the curricular that is being used to teach and how relevant such is to the digital economy.

“We are all aware that there is no innovation where new knowledge does not exist. The most innovative countries in the world that control the market share of the $11.5 trillion global digital economies are the countries with immense public and private sectors that are funding research and development. We must commit to accelerating our research and development; beginning with our intellectual property environment and solving the underlying problems of funding for innovative research.

“Also relevant to the realization of our digital Nigeria vision is the funding required for startups, spinoffs and already established companies in their quest for digital solutions development for the market. For it is in the application of knowledge and its conversion into useful products for the people that innovation ushers in prosperity.

“While many tax incentives exist already, we must bring together these initiatives in ways that ensure ease of access to those who need it. Beyond tax incentives, we must also create innovative ways of facilitating patient venture capital that will provide the runway that these innovative companies require.

“Even as we put all these in place, we must also commit to promoting digital entrepreneurship amongst our youth by all means necessary and put in place the framework that boosts demand for digital products in the economy through government patronage by procurement of these digital innovation products,” he said.

The post Nigeria Seeks Share From $11.5 Trillion Global Digital Economy appeared first on Tech Digest News.

TECH DIGEST – The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), under supervision of Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, has presented to the public, the Nigeria Digital Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Startup Policy (NDIESP) which is in line with National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS) for a digital Nigeria.

NDIESP is another strategic move by NITDA in support of the efforts by the Federal Government of Nigeria to grow the nation’s economy through digital technologies.

The National Digital Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Startup Policy (NDISEP) comprises of five priority thrusts namely:

1. Advancing Human Capital,
2. Unlocking Access to Capital,
3. Enabling Infrastructure,
4. Boosting Demand, and
5. Promoting Innovative Entrepreneurship.

NDIESP was formulated to achieve a digital innovation and entrepreneurship driven nation that would become a norm which focuses on seeing improvement in the areas of digital technologies.

As the nation exited from recession, NDIESP proposes that Digital innovation and entrepreneurship would help fast track the recovery of other traditional economic sectors by supporting the provision and adoption of indigenous and tailor-made solutions for nationwide implementation of the policy through automation, smart processes and ICT solutions, while applying to key in stakeholders in government,, innovation-driven enterprises, consumers of innovation, technology start-ups, innovation hubs and labs, investors, academia, funding agencies, civil society organisations, service providers, and others into the policy

The NITDA Director General, Mallam Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, while making his presentation earlier at the Public Sector Stakeholders’ Engagement organized by the Agency, disclosed that the idea behind the formulation of this policy is to bring to the table different and innovative approaches in realizing President Muhammadu Buhari’s vision for the country.

“The reason we gathered here today is to present a draft National Digital Entrepreneurship and Innovation Policy which has the primary objective of digital transformation of our economy with the potential of boosting economic growth and economic diversification. This is a task that requires all hands to be on deck,” said the DG, who was represented by Director ITIS, Dr Usman Gambo Abdullahi.

He opined that for this digital transformation to become a reality, Nigeria must pay attention to harnessing the quality and the relevance of its population, while it continues to maintain the 60:40 ratio of STEM students in universities to other disciplines, adding that more attention should be paid to the curricular that are being used to teach and how relevant they to the digital economy.

“We are all aware that there is no innovation where new knowledge does not exist. The most innovative countries in the world that control the market share of the $11.5 trillion global digital economy are the countries with immense public and private sectors that are funding research and development. We must commit to accelerating our research and development; beginning with our intellectual property environment and solving the underlying problems of funding for innovation research.”

“Also relevant to the realization of our digital Nigeria vision is the funding required for startups, spinoffs and already established companies in their quest for digital solutions development for the market. For it is in the application of knowledge and its conversion into useful products for the people that innovation ushers in prosperity. While many tax incentives exist already, we must bring together these initiatives in ways that ensure ease of access to those who need to access it. Beyond tax incentives, we must also create innovative ways of facilitating patient venture capital that will provide the runway that these innovative companies require.

“Even as we put all these in place, we must also commit to promoting digital entrepreneurship amongst our youth by all means necessary and put in place the framework that boosts demand for digital products in the economy through government patronage by procurement of these digital innovation products,” he said.

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