Nigeria: NCS Calls for Domestication of ICT Policy

Nigeria Computer Society (NCS) has laid emphasis on the need to recognise knowledge as a resource that can be traded to achieve national development.

The NCS in a communiqué released at the end of its national conference in Enugu , stated that domestication and localisation of Nigeria ICT policy through the various tiers of government across Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of government, have become very important.

The communiqué signed by its President, Prof. David Adewumi, Deputy President, Chairman, National Conference Communiqué Committee Prof. 'Sola Aderounmu, and chairman, Conferences Committee, Moses Braimah, states that after the paper presentations, technical sessions, contributions of the participants and exhaustive deliberations, the following decisions were reached:

That Information Communication Technology (ICT) is an enabler for growth and national development, capable of being the highest employer of labour in the country; That competitive advantage in business has always been driven by knowledge and that multiple stakeholders need to collaborate to build strong partnerships in the transformation of Nigeria from information society to knowledge-based economy.

The Communiqué also stated that a knowledge-based economy is predicated on the production and dissemination of ideas; that there is the urgent need to recognise knowledge as a resource that can be codified, registered and made tradeable; hence need for a well concerted investment in knowledge acquisition.

Also it noted that achieving this requires immediate domestication and localisation of Nigeria ICT policy vertically through the various tiers of government and laterally across MDAs of government.

The document states that state-level agencies should be created to implement, coordinate and monitor ICT activities geared towards indigenous knowledge production in the 36 states of the Federation and FCT.

That such state agencies should tap from the wealth of experience of Nigerian IT professionals and practitioners who are members of NCS.

The participants also empathised with the Federal Government over the various security challenges being faced in the country and noted that effective use of ICT in intelligence surveillance could assist in arresting some of the terrorists.

Furthermore, the conference commended the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture for the giant strides being made through the deployment of ICT for agricultural monitoring and information dissemination.

Taken from All Africa, Nigeria: NCS Calls for Domestication of ICT Policy