BY Emeka Aginam

The dust on the name to be given to the Communications Technology Ministry appears not to have settled with stakeholders in the Nigerian IT sector since creation of the new ministry.

The stakeholders before now had clamoured for the creation of an Information and Communications Technology (ICT) ministry, given the speed of developments that convergence has brought into the world economy.

This is even as the Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria, (ISPON) has again called for the urgent creation of an IT Commission to address needs of the industry.

While supporting the call for renaming of the Ministry, ISPON President, Chris Uwaje who was among the key champions in the development of the Nigerian IT sector, said that there was an urgent need for the creation of a National Software Commission to hasten national software development.

Recently during the IT professionals assembly 2013 under the aegis of the Computer Professionals Registration Council of Nigeria, (CPN), held in Abuja, the forum revisited the creation of ministry of Communications and Information Technology.

The missing link
Although the new ministry was said to have been created following recommendations of a stakeholder’s forum chaired by Vice President Namadi Sambo, stakeholders faulted the Federal Government on should be Information Technology.

On why the Ministry should be called Information Technology, Uwadia argued that because IT subsumes Computing and Communications. “IT conveys the message of convergence more appropriately,” he said.

Lending voice to the issue, CEO of Sigma-Beta Alpha Limited, Mr. Tunde Ejichi, told Vanguard Hi-Tech that the issue bordering on the name the Ministry should be called has not been settled ,adding that the acronomy ICT is a misnomer.

“Let us call it a proper name. IT is applied science and not ICT. When we talk of information activity, it is storage, transfer, retrieval. IT is the thing and not ICT. People have been so used to Communication ministry. When we say IT Ministry , people said that it is confusing. Ministry of Communication Technology should not be the name because of convergence issue.

Similarly, the earlier position of Dr. Jimson Olufuye, the Chairman of African ICT Alliance and Vice President of WITSA was not different from others who have thrown their weight behind renaming it Ministry of IT.

“What we are saying is the issue of convergence. We have looked at other markets around the world. We have to look at best practices. Creation of Communication and Information Technology Ministry should be the proper thing the government should do. That is what we have said before. That is what we are still saying, ” he said.