By Ijeoma Olorunfemi
Abuja – Participants at eNigeria Conference and Exhibition taking place in Abuja, on Wednesday, tasked Federal Government
on Information Technology (IT) policies that would enable e-governance in the country.
Electronic governance or e-governance is the application of information and communication technology (ICT) to deliver government services,
exchange of information, communication transactions, integration of various stand-alone systems and services between Government-To-Citizens
(G2C) and Government-To-Business (G2B).
The conference participants made the call on the sidelines of the 11th edition of the annual conference, organised by the National Information
Technology Development Agency (NITDA) with this year’s theme as “Promoting Digital Economy in an Era of Disruptive Technologies
Through Effective Regulations.”
They stressed the need for government to develop the needed infrastructure and foster stakeholders’ inclusion and fast track
the implementation of policies for an encompassing government.
Mrs Pauline Baba, the Director, Information Technology and Resources Centre, Kogi State University, said it was impossible to
run e-government without steady power supply, as it was the major ingredient.
She said “Nigeria as a country must tackle the major problem of infrastructure, especially power supply in order for her to run egovernment.
“If we continue to propose things like block chain and artificial intelligence, we must also be ready to fix power and other right infrastructure
to get the desired result.”
Baba further said there must be adequate funding of agencies, adding that government must drive the political will to develop Information Technology
in the country.
Mr Apara Ige, the National President, Association of Mobile Communication Device Technicians of Nigeria (AMCODET) who claimed that
AMCODET had been sidelined in the development of the IT sector, added that the association at its level should have gotten a training centre for
members.
He said “we appreciate NITDA for the support, but it goes beyond coming here to show who we are and what we do.
“In technological advancement, what have we gotten from NITDA, we have nothing to show for it and we are talking of ICT.
“We are the technicians; I can ask the Director General if we have a service or training centre to train indigenous technicians in Nigeria.
“These are the reasons we are here to let the government know that some things are lacking.”
According to Ige, the country has over 10 million mobile device technicians and the government needs to harness their
contributions toward developing the nation.
He commended the inclusive online registration for participation at the eNigeria conference of the year but tasked NITDA to
communicate the information earlier to participants to avoid taking them unaware.
Mr Sadiq Bammami, the Chief Executive Officer, BeeSoft Limited, a software and hardware start-up exhibitor at the conference,
said that the pace of e-government policies’ implementation was slow.
“Although NITDA is implementing some policies but it’s very slow: government should see to the fast implementation of some
of these policies, if we really want an eNigeria.”
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that eNigeria is an annual technology conference that brings stakeholders across the country
and beyond to discover new opportunities provided by increasing advancement in innovation.
eNigeria conference is also encouraging start ups and ICT entrepreneurs, aimed at accelerating the development and access to
digital products, services to millions of Nigerians, to ultimately create Africa’s largest single digital market by 2020.
