NITDA draws battle line on cyber crime

By Emma Elebeke

AS Cyber Crime continues to constitute a major threat to the Nigerian Cyber community, the Director  General, National Information Technology Development Agency, NITDA, Prof. Cleopas Angaye, said his agency has concluded arrangements to collaborate with a Malaysian  agency that  specialises in cyber crime to tackle the menace in Nigeria.

Prof. Angaye disclosed this at the presentation of prizes for NITDA’s Best Software Design Architecture of the Year in Abuja.

He the level of operation by hackers had made it impossible for any agency or organisation to fight it alone, saying that the need for collaboration among ICT agencies and organizations can’t be over emphasised, which according to him, requires a multifaceted approach.

Underscoring the importance of local content, the NITDA boss  also said that no country can develop and compete globally at the present information age without sound and adequate software base. He therefore called for strong support and encouragement for local software developers.

“The software industry is no doubt of utmost importance to future competitiveness for economies across the globe especially with its halo effect in creating related business opportunities.”

As part of his agency’s effort to encourage software development, Prof. angaye said NITDA had developed a National Software Policy to guide the development and promotion of  software in order to diversify Nigerian economy and promote  knowledge-based economy that would lead to alternative source of revenue for the nation.

He however expressed optimism that the various initiatives of the agency would soon transform the Nigerian software sector to drive the deployment of Information Technology in various sectors of the national economy and make Nigeria the hub of software development in Africa.

Meanwhile, the occasion was climaxed with the presentation of prizes to the winners of the 2012 National Software Competition for Tertiary Institutions from different institutions organised by Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria, ISPON.

The winners emerged from  Minna and Federal University of Technology , Akure, Abia State Polytechnic, Aba and  Federal University of Technology.

Federal University of Technology, Minna emerged the overall winner as the winner of  the  NITDA’s Cup for Software and Professor Cleopas Officer Angaye’s Best Open Source Software;  Abia State Polytechnic  won the NITDA’s Best Software Design Architecture of the Year while the Federal University of Technology, Akure coast home with Dr. Clement Ndukwe’s Cup for the Best Creative Software of the Year.