TECHDIGEST – Pantami to chair Nigeria Computer Society (NCS) Conference, speak at College of Fellow’s breakfast meeting.

In the capacity as Chairman, Nigeria Computer Society 2022 International Conference scheduled to take place in Abeokuta, Ogun State, Professor Isa Ali Ibrahim (Pantami), Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, is set to speak at the College of Fellow’s Breakfast Meeting scheduled to hold on August 3rd, 2022.

According to a press statement by Uwa Sulieman, spokesperson to the Minister, Pantami made this pledge on Monday when he received Mr. Ibrahim Zira Bazza, the Provost, College of Fellow’s Breakfast Meeting accompanied by Mr Ayodeji Rex Abitogun, the chairman of the conference committee of NCS, on a courtesy visit.

The Nigeria Computer Society (NCS’) International Conference scheduled to hold at Cultural Centre, Kuto, Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria holds under a central theme: “Smart, Secure & Sustainable Nation (S3N 2022)“.

It will be recalled that on May 17th 2022, the Nigeria Computer Society officially invited Minister Pantami to chair the upcoming 51st conference.

NCS S3N 2022, being an International conference, will give attendee access to connect with both foreign/local speakers and participants.

The NCS S3N 2022 boasts of rich sub-themes ranging from intelligent cities, e-Governance, e-Health, Smart Securities and other modern-day technologies relevant for today’s applications.

Professor Adesina Sodiya, President of the Nigeria Computer Society had in different fora maintained that attending NCS Conferences increase one’s professional and academic ratings.

“Your participation will earn you 3 units of PD credit units”, the Society stated on its website.

Some of the expected speakers at the NCS S3N 2022 conference are; Prince (Dr.) Dapo Abiodun, the Governor, Ogun State; Professor Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, Minister, FMCDE; Professor Ibrahim Gambari, Chief of Staff to the President (FRN); Dipo Faulkner, VP, Technology Software for Africa at Oracle; Moira de Roche, Vice President of IFIP; Richard Amafonye, Head IT Resource, Access Corporation; Mr. Kole Jagun, President, CPN; Steven Furnell, Professor, Cyber Security, University of Nottingham; Engr. Aliyu Aziz, DG/CEO, NIMC; Mr. Folashodun Adebisi Shonubi, Deputy Governor, CBN, amongst others.

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TECHDIGEST – Nigeria Computer Society (NCS), the umbrella body of all Information Technology (IT) professionals in Nigeria, has called for the establishment of IT department in Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of governments of the Federal, State and Local Governments.

Professor Adesina Sodiya, President of NCS stressed the need for government to create IT Department in all MDAs during a chat with news editors in Lagos.

He said the creation of IT Department would help government drive IT development much faster in today’s digital era, where knowledge-based skills in IT is driving development.

According to the President of NCS, “Towards the end of 2019, the federal government, through the Head of Service, issued a policy that all MDAs should begin the process of digitising their operations and processes.

READ ALSO: NITDA’s ONDI Organises Capacity Training Programme For Startups

“It is of interest to NCS to see that all government processes are automated and the first process of automation is digitalisation. Physical file and processes cannot be automated without digitising the files and processes. As an advocacy group, NCS will continue to seek partnership with government on digital skills and digitisation of government services and processes,” Sodiya said.

He however said to achieve automation in government circles; government must create the Department of Information Technology in all MDAs to drive digitisation of government services and processes.

“Today not all MDAs of government have IT Department. Most federal ministries do not have separate department for IT and this is miss-normal, because governments cannot talk of automating services of MDAs to drive digital transformation in government, when it has not created IT Departments to drive the initiative. If we do not have a separate Department of IT, it will be difficult for government to achieve its mandate on digital transformation in civil service,” Sodiya added.

Source : Techeconomy.ng

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TECHDIGEST – As part of efforts in aligning Nigeria with the trending global Information Technology standards, the Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Mallam Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi CCIE has admonished the younger generation, especially the Nigerian students to exploit the boundless opportunities presented by evolution of digital technologies in order to fully enjoy its benefits. According to him, the application of innovative technologies which when commercialized can yield a productive and vibrant economy.

He said this while delivering a keynote address at the annual National Innovation, Research and Software Summit 2021 organized by the National Association of Computer Students (NACOS) today at the NILE University.

Speaking on the Renaissance of Technology, the NITDA boss stated that the present administration of President Muhammadu Buhari GCFR have come up with many initiatives to create an enabling environment in order to diversify the economy by promoting indigenous content.

He added that the launching of the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS) and the redesignation of the Ministry of Communications to include the Digital Economy are part of concerted efforts of the Federal Government with relevant stakeholders in actualizing Nigeria’s roadmap to a vibrant digital economy.

He mentioned that the rapid evolution of technology and innovation if adequately and adequately applied, can have significant positive impact on the economy of the country. “As students, it is important for you to think of ideas and nurture it so that you can create wealth for yourself even before graduation because in order for you to be innovative, you need to be able to commercialize your inventions”, Abdullahi averred.

Abdullahi however explained the importance of working as a team rather than in isolation stating that a lot can be achieved as a team.
“It is important for you to co-found any start up idea you have and work within the IT ecosystem because a lot can be achieved that way”, he said.

He emphatically stated that technology is basically categorized by Increasingly Capable Systems, Increasing Technology Integration and the Surveillance Capitalism which are threatening people’s jobs, enabling the ability to connect to anything and creating a quantified society respectively ought to be sources of inspiration to the students in creating jobs and prosperity for themselves.

He added that in line with the NDEPS, NITDA is working hard in achieving the realisation of a vibrant digital economy through deliberate efforts such as digital literacy and skills, promotion of indigenous content, digital innovations and entrepreneurship.

“NITDA has developed infrastructures and initiatives such as the the establishment of the National Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (NCAIR), Digital States Initiatives, Providing IT Hubs, Technology Innovation Entrepreneurship Support (TIES) Schemes amongst many others,” he noted.

Abdullahi disclosed the Agency’s enthusiasm in working with universities with the aim of building startups and developing potential entrepreneurs from the academic environments.
“This is a model we are trying to emulate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology which is one of the leading Universities that produce entrepreneurs”, he stated.

He further stated the Agency’s efforts in working with some universities on a project called the MIT Regional Entrepreneurship Acceleration Programmes (MIT-REAP) which is a global initiative of the MIT as well with the aim of creating a viable IT ecosystem to produce a well structured developed economy.

“I want NACOS to key into these initiatives so that they can be inspired to build their innovative and entrepreneurial capacity in the innovation ecosystem”, the DG concluded.

Professor Adesina Sodiya FNCS, the Nigeria Computer Society (NCS) president in his earlier remark expressed his excitement in witnessing the commencement of the great event by the National Association of Computing Students.
He gave his assurances that the NCS remains committed to promoting rapid National growth by providing necessary technical and professional support to technology providers. “the Society will continue to support and promote technological development and Information Technology businesses for sustainable development of our nation”, he stated.

By PRNigeria

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TECHDIGEST – Nigeria Computer Society (NCS), the umbrella body for all Information Technology practitioners in Nigeria, has warned that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN’s) decision to outsource the e-Naira project to a foreign is a total abuse of known Executive Order 003 of 2017.

The Body established in 1978 is concerned with the promotion of national development using Information Technology.

In a strong worded press release signed by the Professor Adesina Sodiya, the president and Iyiola Ayoola, executive secretary, the Society said that as good as the e-Naira technical partner selection criteria are, it has become very imperative for NCS to advise CBN on the way forward on the issue.

Recall that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) through Mr. Osita Nwanisobi, the director of Corporate Communications, recently announced the formal engagement of the global Fintech company, Bitt Inc. as the Technical Partner for its digital currency, named eNaira which is due to be unveiled next month.

“The CBN’s selection of Bitt Inc, as e-Naira technical partners from among highly competitive bidders was hinged on the company’s technological competence, efficiency, platform security, interoperability, and implementation experience”, the CBN claimed.

But this is not going down well with IT experts in Nigeria. For instance, NCS wandered why Bitt Inc; the Fintech company, was engaged by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) as the Technical Partner for its digital currency project; “company of not more than three staff and a lower market capitalization compared to any of Nigeria’s major Fintech companies”.

“It is a missed opportunity to further strengthen the value of Nigeria’s Fintech ecosystem, reduce the country’s undue exposure to FOREX imbalance and enhance the value of the naira struggling against major currencies”, Sodiya said.

“Non-compliance to IT policy and framework of Federal Government: By law, MDAs are under obligation to seek clearance from the NITDA before embarking on any IT project as enshrined in Section 6 of the NITDA Act, 2007, and by extension seeking clearance from Computer Professionals Registration Council of Nigeria (CPN), the only regulatory body saddled with that responsibility”.

“Presidential Executive Order 003 of 2017 clearly states that ‘’All Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs ) of the FGN shall grant preference to local manufacturers of goods and services providers in their procurement of goods and services; Any document issued by any MDA of the FGN for the solicitation of offers, bids, proposals or quotations for the supply of provision of goods and services (Solicitation Document), in accordance with the above , shall expressly indicate the preference to be granted to domestic manufacturers, contractors and service providers and the information required to establish the eligibility of a bid for such preference’’, he said.

Also, Presidential Executive Order 005 of 2018 corroborates Order 003 and goes deep down to enumerate punishment for violations of these executive orders.

“These Orders were outrightly violated and their contents flagrantly jettisoned overboard”, NCS reminds the Federal Government of Nigeria.

Sodiya said while CBN based its decision to select Bitt Inc, a company in the Caribbean as a technical partner, on technical challenges, and the necessity of speed, the fact remains that the pockets of startups which went down after the CBN cryptocurrency technical ban, could have provided technical capabilities for this project.

To this end, NCS wants CBN to reverse its decision on the choice of technical partners for the e-Naira project and allow all the Fintech giants (in Nigeria) apply/bid for the job.

“Nigeria has cutting edge financial technology development and implementation firms like: Precise Financial Systems (PFS); SystemSpecs Nigeria the firm behind Remita; Migo Credit-as-a-Service digital platform; Unicorn limited; Flutterwave; OPay; Fintrack limited; Inksledger financial system, to mention but few”.

He said that Nigeria’s National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS) is supposed to enable Nigeria to take advantage of digital technologies in order to become a leading player in the global digital economy.

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