The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and stakeholders in the Information Communication Technology (ICT) have commended the National Information Technology Agency (NITDA) on its strides in ICT development.
The commendation was contained in a communiqué issued after a workshop on National Validation Workshop on SCAN-ICT in Abuja last week.
The SCAN-ICT Nigeria project is aimed at measuring the impact of ICT on socio economic development in the country.
ECA and other stakeholders were impressed by the activities undertaken by NITDA in the implementation of Nigeria Scan-ICT programme, noting that the country in one single survey had embraced a large spectrum of core ICT indicators in Agriculture, Education, Government, Health, Household and Business.
The communiqué also said that the Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D) plan remained the roadmap for IT development in Nigeria and that its adoption of the ICT4D initiative would boost vision 20:2020 Agenda.
According to the stakeholders, the joint partnership between NITDA and UNECA in formulating national e-strategies is speeding up Nigeria’s entry into the knowledge economy, adding that Nigeria became the first country to carry out Scan ICT under the third phase of the projects.
Though Nigeria joined the SCAN ICT initiative just a year ago, it had made tremendous impact through the integration of ICT statistics in her national statistical system, the communiqué noted, adding that much progress was being made in Africa countries, most importantly in Nigeria in the implementation of ICT4D programmes.
ECA recommended that Nigeria through NITDA should put in place, or strengthen necessary institutional arrangements in ensuring the sustainability of the SCAN-ICT process and collect ICT statistics on regular basis for progress monitoring.
“ICT penetration and use in the various governmental levels be continually pursued and strengthened towards her socio-economic development and NITDA, ECA and other major stakeholders in ICT sector in Nigeria should continually partner in allocating more resources for the continuous measurement of detailed and comprehensive country wide survey of the impact of ICT in Nigeria,” the communiqué said.
The communiqué was signed by former Minister of State for Information and Communications and Chairman of the National Taskforce for SCAN-ICT Nigeria, Ibrahim Dasuki Nakande.
The workshop was attended by over 250 participants from the public and private sectors, International Community, Civil Society Organisations and the media.
Dignitaries at the event included Director-General, NITDA Prof. Cleopas Anganye; former Minister of State for Information and Communications, Alhaji Ibrahim Dasuki Nakande, who is also the Chairman of the National Taskforce for SCAN-ICT Nigeria; CEO, Alteq ICT, Dr. Armstrong Takang who was the resource person, Head of ICT, UNECA, Mr. Makane Faye, among others.
Participants were drawn from the public and private sectors as well as the Civil Society groups including the media.