The Federal Government on Tuesday in Abuja challenged Information and Communication Technology (ICT) experts in Africa to come up with new strategies that would further advance ICT development on the continent.

Mr Labaran Maku, the Minister of State for Information and Communications, gave the challenge at the experts” session of the 3rd Conference of African Ministers of Communication and Information Technologies.

He urged them to reflect on the recommendations of the last conference held in Cairo in 2008. “We are to look back on these recommendations and take stock of the extent our various governments have gone toward their implementation, and come up with new strategies that will further advance ICT development on the continent,” he said. Maku advised the experts to acknowledge the efforts various governments in the continent were making to execute the mandate.

“In Nigeria, a number of initiatives have been taken by the government toward the implementation of the Cairo recommendations,” he added. The minister recalled that the recommendations included National Rural Telephony Programme aimed at providing internet facilities for rural communities and funding of some ICT development projects by Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF).

He added that Nigeria had embarked on some programmes to address the issue of power supply, through massive investment in power and energy. Mr Abubakar Baba-Moussa, Director, Infrastructure and Energy, African Union (AU) Commission, had earlier urged the experts to deliberate on how best the continent could develop its ICT sector.