Abuja – The House Committee on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) of the National Assembly says that ICT will generate the biggest revenue in the country if the Federal Government harnesses the potential in the sector.
Chairman of the Committee, Mr Lado Suleija, made this known when the management of Galaxy Backbone (GBB) Ltd, made a presentation to the committee on Thursday in Abuja.
Suleija said that the country was now in the 4th Industrial Revolution, which was advancing through digital transformation.
Suleija said that the government company was saddled with so many responsibilities on ICT, especially in the area of centralising data base of all the Ministries, Departments and Agencies of the government.
The Chairman promised to look into the GBB’s challenges, do amendments and enact new laws that would give them a conducive environment to deliver quality services to their customers.
“Actually, based on the submission of the presentation of the managing director, galaxy backbone, we are able to notice the challenges galaxy backbone is facing and why they are not giving available services to their customers.
“It has to do with some laws and also policies.
“We will look into that with the view of due amendments and enacting new laws that will give them a conducive environment to give quality services to their customers.
“We will work together and make sure we look into the laws and also policies so that they will be able to discharge their responsibilities creditably,” he said.
The Vice Chairman of the Committee, Mr Solomon Adeolu, urged the government to establish a synergy amongst MDAs by giving them the necessary attention in view of the roles they play.
Adeolu said that the document read during the briefing was impressive and revealing, adding that the GBB had the responsibility to drive the 4th industrial revolution in the country.
“The responsibility in this era is to drive the 4th industrial revolution; we have gone through the 1st, 2nd and the 3rd industrial revolution,” he said.
“The 3rd industrial revolution was the `dot come’ era and a lot of people made so much money, countries, cooperations, individuals; and right now we have the 4th industrial revolution.
The Managing Director of Galaxy Backbone, Prof. Mohammed Abubakar, who did the presentation, noted that in spite of the state of art infrastructure, it was increasingly difficult to compete with private sector companies because of compliance requirements that were peculiar to public sector institutions.
Abubakar appealed o the Committee to intervene in the area of funding and legislation to make the company more viable.
He also urged the Committee to support proper enforcement of the SGF’s circular on GBB’s mandate directing all MDAs to consolidate and centralise government Data Centres, transversal applications and Communication networks.
“Constraints posed by the government include process compliance obligations; Budgetary provision fails to match steep rise in demand for Galaxy’s services, internal infrastructure readiness issues with some MDAs.
“Lack of access to LANs and other internal infrastructure of MDAs by GBB staff; Internal IT capacity issues within several MDA affect uptake and utilisation of Gallaxy Services; Foreign Exchange Volatility.
(NAN)
