By Emmanuel Elebeke

The Association of Telecommunication Professionals of Nigeria, ATPN, has urged State Governors in the country to establish agencies that will coordinate and manage the ICT activities in their respective States and local government level so as to enhance the growth of the sector at the grass roots.

The National President of the association, Adede Williams, in an interview with Hi-Tech in Abuja, said decentralizing ICT regulation to state and local government levels would pave way for the setting up of ICT agencies and units at both state and LGAs with good infrastructure, which will enhance the progress of developmental goals in the plan to drive ICT policy from the federal level to all levels of government.
With the implementation of National ICT Policy by NITDA across the country, he reasoned that.

ICT agencies in the states, if established will also assume regulatory functions in order to create a level playing field in the fast growing industry.
He said it was imperative for all the State Governments of the Federation to integrate ICT into their processes “if we, as a nation, must attain the vision 20:2020 in the remaining five years of MDGs.”

He noted that ICT has huge potentials in providing quality of services in areas such as education, health, commerce and public administration, believing that the agency would be vital to the protection of the interest of stakeholders such as consumers, providers and the government who are increasingly embracing services like e-learning, Tele-medicine, Tele-health, e-services and e-commerce.

According to Williams, lack of state ICT coordinating agencies constitutes one of the biggest challenges in developing the sector in the country, even as the country is preparing to move broadcasting from analogue to digital, adding that, “we really need that agency in all states of the federation to cushion the effect of digital broadcasting transition.”

He further noted that the formation of ICT agencies in the state level was necessary to guide the government in the transitional stage of creating a database through which the proposed agency would perform its monitoring role.

“The establishment of ICT agencies in all 36 states of the federation and FCT as well as having ICT units in all the 774 Local Government Areas in the country is imperative if there must be meaningful development in the country.”

He urged all the state Governors in the country to introduce the study of ICT at the primary school level throughout the Nation with ICT facilities that will give the pupils technological knowledge.

This he said would is expected to bridge the digital divide across the country irrespective of the locality and vowed to step up the demand for government intervention until ICT for all is achieved as potent measure to accelerate the ICT drive in the nation’s development.
The association President however, commended the Federal government for constituting the National Council of Communication Technology, NCCT for the exploration of ICT potentials amongst the youth with products and innovations dominant in the market today.