Beyond its crucial mandate of deepening ICT penetration in Nigeria, the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) stands out as one government agency that is really making huge impact on the economy and in the lives of many Nigerians through its empowerment programmes. But most importantly, the agency is demonstrating an unusual commitment to public service, such that its focus is not just to deliver services but to do so efficiently.
This disposition of NITDA towards service delivery was confirmed recently when barely two months after unveiling its Service Charter, the National Coordinator’s Office of SERVICOM rated the Agency above average in its service delivery. The National Coordinator’s Office of SERVICOM which announced the rating of the Agency said NITDA had achieved a 2.4 index rate out of available 4.0. According to the Acting National Coordinator of SERVICOM, Mrs Nnenna Akajemeli, the presentation of the SERVICOM index became imperative in order to improve on the service the Agency is rendering to the general public. “I believe that with this rating the Agency has achieved in less than two months of unveiling the charter, the management would not relent on its desire to achieve a five star rating index.” She advised the Agency to improve on the qualities of service to the public as stated in the Charter.
And in his response to this recognition, the Acting Director General of NITDA, Dr. Vincent Olatunji assured that the Agency is committed to ensuring that services are delivered in the most effective and efficient manner. According to him, the Change Agenda of this present administration has made it compelling for Ministries, Departments and Agencies to improve on their service delivery in order to make the agenda a reality.
He added that NITDA as an Agency charged with the responsibility to diversify the country’s economy from oil based on its mandate would not do anything less in improving on the quality of service rendering. “NITDA is positioned as an Agency to ensure that ICT is used as a driver of other sectors of the economy, especially at this present time that the revenue from oil is dwindling. He commended the SERVICOM Compliance Evaluation Team for their diligence and effective way of creating enlightenment among Nigerians.
Recall that NITDA in March this year unveiled its with a view to achieving effective service delivery to the public. In the words of Olatunji, “it is necessary to ensure that services are delivered in the most effective and efficient manner. In this regard, NITDA, as the regulatory body of ICT in Nigeria, is embarking on the launching of its Service Charter and the inauguration of the SERVICOM team.”
Dr. Olatunji maintained that the Agency has taken it as a priority to inaugurate its SERVICOM unit and launch its Charter, adding that it has become a vital tool for ensuring discipline, transparency and accountability in both the public and private sectors. “Our vision at NITDA is to be the prime catalyst for transforming the Nigeria economy into an ICT-driven one, thus the establishment of the SERVICOM unit will no doubt accelerate the realization of this great vision. NITDA shall ensure that services to our numerous customers and stakeholders are delivered in the most effective and efficient manner and we will continue to train and retrain our personnel in order to enhance their performance and make sure they are up-to-date with evolving trends in the ICT industry” the Acting DG had said.
And to see that the Agency had made a landmark even barely two months after unveiling the service charter is a testament to the unwavering commitment the agency’s team are putting into task of growing ICTs in Nigeria. This could be further understood from the big target the agency has set for itself driving ICTs to a point that it becomes the country’s main source of revenue. Though an onerous task it is before NITDA, the commitment and determination of its leadership has given assurance that it is achievable.
Highlighting ways this will be achieved with plans already being put in place by the agency, NITDA’s Acting DG, Olatunji , emphasised the need to develop home grown solutions. “Before we can really key in and actively participate in the global digital economy we have to be ready to develop home grown solutions; home grown solutions that will meet our needs, that will meet our requirements, that will meet our peculiarities. If we are able to serve our indigenous market with what we have, we can then take it to the international market” he said
According to him, Nigeria already has an advantage with a population that is technologically savvy and that is ready to embrace technology. “So if we produce for our population alone, we are doing very well; because given our large population, it is like putting five or six other countries together as one. And, practically everything is being driven by technology: health, education, agriculture, transportation, tourism and culture; everything”.
With this in mind, NITDA is strongly pushing for the development of local content in ICTs. To this end, the agency said it has developed a full policy, guidelines to guide ICT local content development in Nigeria. “We have gone further to establish a full-fledge office to drive the implementation of that local content guideline to assist in promoting brand Nigeria ICT products and services. In fact, we are getting to the level of criminalising non-patronage of home-made, that is, made-in-Nigeria ICT products and services by federal ministries, departments and agencies. We held a meeting with heads of ICT departments in ministries and parastatals a couple of months ago, and we made it clear to them that going forward, no ministry, no parastatals should put forward any request for foreign (ICT) products unless we don’t have such products in Nigeria” NITDA Acting DG disclosed.
And going forward, according to Olatunji, the next focus is to prepare the country’s local brands, the software developers, the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), to ensure that they scale up the standards of their products and services. “When you scale up the standard of your products and services to international standard nobody can fault what we are doing, because they all buy from the same market. For instance, to assemble a computer, there is no single company that will manufacture a computer from the beginning to the end. You have to buy some components from different parts of the world and assemble them. And our OEMs fortunately they go to the same markets with the likes of HP (Hewlett Packard), the likes of Sony and so on. So why can’t we produce something of that standard? And secondly these (foreign) organisations if their countries did not really promote and support them when they started they won’t be where they are today. So there is every need for us to promote what we have. But the standard must be good; global standard.”
In building and ICT workforce to drive the digital economy, NITDA is also making bold steps with its trainings and skills acquisition programmes. Stating some of the steps already taken in enhancing technology education, Olatunji said a study by the agency revealed that most university students were not having practical classrooms and the agency responded to that by deploying ICT lab. “We intervened by deploying ICT lab; that is what we now call knowledge access venue (KAV) in schools, for them to have a feel of the practical tools. It was formerly IT infrastructure in schools; but now KAV, which is a computer lab, with about 25 computers, internet access, photocopying facilities and so on. Such that after their normal classes, they can go there, do some practical work; and they can even do research and learning; and also we are deploying e-libraries for some of these schools, for research, teaching and learning. Maybe you are given an assignment; you want to do research, instead of going to the library to look for materials up and down you can go to the e-library. So these are the things we are trying to do.”
Besides, the agency is also training teachers to upgrade their skills with latest technologies. “We are teaching the teachers new ways of computer programming, even in the area of web technology and we organise several training programmes for youths, unemployed youths, for physically challenged” One of such trainings, Olatunji said, is ongoing in Lagos, where the agency is training 100 Nigerians under the Graduate Leadership Scheme. The training is to run for three months, to prepare them for ICT-related jobs, and government will pay them N30, 000 per month, for the next nine months until they are able to place properly where they can get IT-related jobs.
At this time that Nigeria needs to urgently look beyond the oil to revive her economy, NITDA seems to have led the way with its bold initiatives at developing the ICT industry. Obviously, its commitment to service delivery, which has seen its programmes yielded positive results, should be a good example for other agencies of government to emulate if the country is to move forward.