Communication Minister to Dump IT Policy
- By Abimbola Tooki
- Published August 29th, 2011
- News
- Unrated
Mrs. Omobola Johnson, minister of communications technology, has disclosed her intention to dump the current information technology policy for a more robust information and communications technology (ICT) policy that would address some of the noticed lapses in the current document. The envisaged policy would take about six weeks to harmonise.
This decision is not unconnected with the realization of the fact that the current policy is outdated and has not achieved the objectives it set out to achieve about 12 years after it was launched.
All the implementing agencies under the new ministry, the Nigerian Communications Commission, Nigerian Communications Satellite (Nigcomsat), National Information and Technology Development Agency (Nitda), Galaxy Backbone, and Nigerian Postal Services would derive their mandate from the new document.
Specifically, the document set out to make Nigeria an IT-capable country in Africa and a key player in the information society by 2005, using IT as the engine for sustainable development and global competitiveness. This, industry analysts believe, has not been implemented successfully by the National Information Technology Development Agency, the body set up to implement the IT policy in Nigeria.
Johnson said, other areas that would attract the ministry’s urgent attention include facilitating universal, ubiquitous and cost effective access to communications infrastructure that include the national fibre-optic backbone; promoting the utilization of ICT in all spheres of life to optimize the communications infrastructure; promoting the development of the ICT industry and in doing so increase the contribution of the ICT industry to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
The minister said she will also encourage the deployment of ICT to drive transparency in governance and improve the quality and cost effectiveness of public service delivery.
Other areas where the IT policy was said to have failed include establishment of IT parks as incubating centres for the development of software applications at national, state and local levels; restructuring the education system at all levels to respond effectively to the challenges and imagined impact of the information age and in particular, the allocation of a special IT development fund to education at all levels.
The policy has not addressed the restructuring of the healthcare system by providing a national databank to provide on-line national healthcare information, administration and management at primary, secondary and tertiary levels 12 years after it was launched.
It has also not encouraged massive local and global IT skills acquisitions through training in the public and private sectors with the view to achieving a strategic medium-term milestone of at least 500,000 IT skilled personnel by 2004.
This decision is not unconnected with the realization of the fact that the current policy is outdated and has not achieved the objectives it set out to achieve about 12 years after it was launched.
All the implementing agencies under the new ministry, the Nigerian Communications Commission, Nigerian Communications Satellite (Nigcomsat), National Information and Technology Development Agency (Nitda), Galaxy Backbone, and Nigerian Postal Services would derive their mandate from the new document.
Specifically, the document set out to make Nigeria an IT-capable country in Africa and a key player in the information society by 2005, using IT as the engine for sustainable development and global competitiveness. This, industry analysts believe, has not been implemented successfully by the National Information Technology Development Agency, the body set up to implement the IT policy in Nigeria.
Johnson said, other areas that would attract the ministry’s urgent attention include facilitating universal, ubiquitous and cost effective access to communications infrastructure that include the national fibre-optic backbone; promoting the utilization of ICT in all spheres of life to optimize the communications infrastructure; promoting the development of the ICT industry and in doing so increase the contribution of the ICT industry to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
The minister said she will also encourage the deployment of ICT to drive transparency in governance and improve the quality and cost effectiveness of public service delivery.
Other areas where the IT policy was said to have failed include establishment of IT parks as incubating centres for the development of software applications at national, state and local levels; restructuring the education system at all levels to respond effectively to the challenges and imagined impact of the information age and in particular, the allocation of a special IT development fund to education at all levels.
The policy has not addressed the restructuring of the healthcare system by providing a national databank to provide on-line national healthcare information, administration and management at primary, secondary and tertiary levels 12 years after it was launched.
It has also not encouraged massive local and global IT skills acquisitions through training in the public and private sectors with the view to achieving a strategic medium-term milestone of at least 500,000 IT skilled personnel by 2004.
