…Moves to drive agro revolution, reform on NAVSA platform.
BY EXTRAORDINAIRENEWS CREW
The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), a parastatatal under the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, undertook a stock assessment of its activities over the years especially at the ascendency of Dr. Ibrahim Pantami, who was the former Director General (DG) of the agency in 2015 and was appointed by President Muahmmadu Buhari as Minister to oversee the Ministry in 2019, due largely to his hard work and innovations he brought to bear in the overall growth of IT and ICT infrastructure across the country.
In the same vein, the current Director General of the agency, Mallam Kashifu Abdullahi, has also not wavered in threading the bold footprints already set by Dr. Pantami, which has no doubt culminated in the outstanding successes recorded in the discharge of its statutory mandates assigned to it as outlined in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
At the tail end of the last quarter of 2020, the agency armed with facts and figures in a stocking assessment in the midst of the ravages of the COVID-19 notwithstanding recorded overwhelming achievements which gave fillip to the fact that the country is on its way to the attainment of the 8 Pillars of Federal Government National Digital Economy pursuits
In its efforts to boost food security and productivity for it’s the country’s teeming population, NITDA has commenced the agricultural revolution and reform agenda across the country with the launch of the National Adopted Village for Smart Agriculture (NAVSA) initiative supported by the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy.
With the launch in Ekiti and Jigawa States, the agency says the use of digital tools to empower farmers with higher productivity will be aggressively taken to the remaining 34 states in 2021 and beyond. The DG informed the Media that farmers from all 774 LGAs in the country will benefit from this outreach program.
Listed below are summaries of milestones and achievements captured in its drive to digital economy:
Developmental Regulation: ²Developed and published 35 standards, guidelines and frameworks in various aspects of Information Technology (IT). ²Cleared 151 unique IT projects of 72 MDAs, with a total amount of N1,185,223,483,015.54. ²Saved Federal Government total N17,015,094,859.7 through IT clearance ²Licensed 72 Data Protection Compliance Organisations (DPCOs). ²Creation of 5 State Information Technology Agencies for States² Created 272 user accounts for IT Project Clearance. ² Solved 790 issues on Data Protection.
Digital Literacy and Skill: Trained a total of 730 Persons Living with Disabilities (PLWDs).” Trained 224 youths on various ICT fields. ²Trained 4500 NYSC members on innovation and entrepreneurship. ²Trained 450 women on ICT and entrepreneurship ²Trained 145 leading farmers on smart Agricultural Practices and modern system of farming ² Trained a total of 1, 050 Artisans in States across the Geo-Political Zones ² Trained 150 NYSC and SIWES students on CISCO certification. ² Held an online National Innovation Challenge to meet the challenges faced as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. 3 startups with highly innovative ideas won the challenge and were rewarded with #2.250 million.
Digital Society and Emerging Technologies: “Trained 150 virtual library stakeholders.² Established the NITDA Academy for Research and Training with 51 plus active courses, 27,559 plus active students and 24,634 plus active training sessions. ²Successful representation of Nigeria GITEX, since 2013 ²12 Successful hosting of e-Nigeria International Conference, Exhibitions and Awards. ² Sponsored 467 Nigerians both at Post-graduate and Doctorate levels in IT related field.
Solid Infrastructure: ²Created 988 Digital Job Creation Centers (DJCC). ²Created 12 virtual libraries in some Universities across the 6 geopolitical zones. ² Deployed 14 Wide Area Networks (WAN) in higher institutions of learning. ² Deployed 10 Innovation Hubs and incubation parks across selected States within the 6 Geopolitical Zones ²Established NITDA Software Testing and Quality Assurance Infrastructure ² Established Capacity Building Laboratory to assist in testing our locally developed software ² Deployed 4 Special Purpose Community IT Training Centers. ² Developed National Infrastructure Back Bone (NIBB). ² Deployed 200 Digital Capacity Training Centers (DCTC). ² Deployed Four (4) Special Purpose Capacity Development Centers
Service Infrastructure: ²Establishment of the National Information Technology Development Fund (NITDEF) for the development of IT in Nigeria ² Creation of Galaxy Backbone Limited to a coordinate and harmonise MDAs approach to information and communications technology acquisition, operation and use in the public sector. ² Creation of Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NIRA) to create, manage and maintain the database of names registered in the .ng country code Top Level Domain name space in the public interest of Nigeria and global internet communities. ² Established NITDA Software Testing and Quality Assurance Infrastructure. ² Developed Public Service Network (PSnet)
Digital Services Development and Promotion: Established the CISCO Network Academy. ²Established collaboration with Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) to secure funding in special areas of NGEA/Ne-GIF implementation. ²Developed interactive platform for Mdas, Consumer And IT Service Providers To Enhance Quality Of Service Delivery In Government Institutions ² Conducted Stakeholders’ Engagement on The Service Level Agreement (SLA) Framework that will guide MDAs In drafting SLA agreements with Service providers. ²Developed the National Digital Economy Strategy ² Constituted and inaugurated the National E-Government Master-Plan steering committee. ²Established Digital Transformation Technical working Group (DTTWG) across the first 100 MDAs. ²Trained 40 Media Executives on Nigeria Data Protection Regulation (NDPR) and another 45 On ICT Reportage In the digital era ² Trained 70 Data Protection Compliance Organisations (DPCos) ² Facilitated Training For 375 other stakeholders from different sectors ² NITDA has been tested and certified with ISO 27001:2013 Certificate ² created over 30,000 Domain Names and Email addresses For MDAs. ²Trained selected officials from the 6 Geo-Political Zones on e-governance. ²Inauguration of the Data Breach Investigation Team (DBIT) in Partnership with The Nigerian Police Force (NPF) for enforcement.
Soft Infrastructure: Provision of Mobile Internet Unit (MIU) buses. ²Developed e-agriculture web portal. ² Creation of the National Adopted Village For Smart Agriculture (NAVSA) and the smart agriculture App for precision farming. ² Set Up The National Public Key Infrastructure (PKI). ² Created a portal to support the Nigeria ICT Innovation Entrepreneurship Vision (NIIEV) for the tech ecosystem, which consists of a database for hubs, start-ups & other stakeholders. ²Created 251 e-Learning Infrastructure Centers (EIC).
Indigenous Content Development And Adoption: ²Mandated software projects to local firms by MDAs, issued 172 Certificates for indigenous IT companies, contractors and digital economy strategists.