By ConstanceAthekame
Abuja – The Minister of Communications, Mr Adebayo Shittu on Thursday said the National ICT policy should be articulated, executed and promoted to protect confidentiality and allay fears of stakeholders.
Shittu, represented by Mrs Monisola Udoh, the Director of ICT in the Ministry of Communication said this in Abuja while delivering a keynote address at the 3rd African Heads of ICT Professionals Development Summit.
The summit with the theme: “ICT Proficiency and Corporate Management: A Panacea to Nation Building, organised by Association of Telecommunications Professionals of Nigeria (ATPN).
He said that by articulating the ICT policy, it would allay the fears of stakeholders that “it is porous to information hacking by internet fraudsters’’.
“That effort should be made by various stakeholders to ensure that the enabling environment is in place to starve off possible obstacles to the usage of ICT in management communication in ICT.
“From our perspective, we have put in place plans to drive demand for infrastructure that will boost economic growth.
“Nigeria has the potential to develop technologically, despite its many challenges, and we are of the view that by strengthening Public Private Partnership on ICT, we will drive infrastructure development across the nation,’’ he said.
The minister said that he was elated that the summit featured a unique blend of stakeholders from across the industry, government, academia and civil society.
He said that his participation in the summit further attested to the strong commitment to demonstrate the importance of ICT as a central pillar for Nigerian socio-economic development in the 21st century.
“It also supports, especially our view of the dire economic challenging strategies in ICT investment for a sustainable growth in Nigeria,’’ he said.
Dr Jimson Olufuye, the Chairman of African Information and Communications Technologies Alliance (AFICTA) said that for Africa to have ICT proficiency there was need for digital literacy across all boards even among the workforce.
Olufuye, who was the co-chairman at the summit, commended the resolutions of the Nigerian Council of Communication Technology to improve digital literacy programme for Nigeria.
“This is highly commendable because if we do not have a prepared workforce, there is no way we can sustain our position in Africa and be reckoned with globally.
“A lot of people have said we have too many workshops, seminars and summits but the truth is that we have not had enough at all, so I commend the organisers of this event.
“I want to use this opportunity to encourage fellow stake holders to promote and support initiatives like this because we need to remind ourselves daily of our responsibility.
Mr Adede Williams, the National President of ATPN said that the meeting was conveyed by the association’s collective desire to be part of the solution to Africa’s ICT growth and development agenda.
“As a professional body, we made it known that we wanted to play both active and supportive role where necessary in setting the African ICT management, development and growth over these years.
“This initiative, therefore, places higher responsibility on us to contribute to this growth and in implementing agreed insights solutions and recommendation that would emerge from our deliberations today,’’ he said.
He said that the gathering would provide a platform for African ICT professionals to originate additional input toward the re-engineering and effective strategies.
According to him, “this will further deepen country’s ICT growth profile that is being praised globally. ‘’