By Emeka Aginam

Director-General, National Information Technology Development Agency, NITDA, Dr. Peter Jack has said that the regulatory agency would generate over  $15 billion  from home grown software, hardware  and IT services to the economy  by the year 2018.
Jack, who  stated this  in  the agency’s proposed strategic plan for 2015 through 2018,  Wednesday, in Abuja at the just concluded African ICT Alliance Chief Executive Officers Round-Table in partnership with Internet Corporation for assigned numbers and Names, ICANN, said that Nigeria  can only be an IT capable country in the knowledge economy if local products were given priority attention.

He said that the Nigerian IT regulatory agency  would create 70 per cent  of computing devices, especially in homes with school going children.

According to him, the strategic plan presented a systematic and pragmatic set of programmes or initiatives that reflected what needed to be done to gravitate NITDA towards a service oriented, modern, accountable and real time,  SMART, agency that would  facilitate a digitally transformed Nigeria.

The main thrust, the NITDA DG said, was  to identify and highlight the drivers and catalysts that will transform the economy as well as foster high quality of life for all citizens.

At the forum that attracted stakeholders in Nigerian ecosystem, Jack said that part of the challenge  included duplication of roles and functions, limited funding from government, absence of will to implement regulatory and enforcement frameworks enshrined in NITDA mandate (NITDA ACT,2007), and absence of a national IT master-plan.

Others include connected government framework, e -government strategy and inter-operability framework, wrong alignment of agency strategic intents with National Transformation Agenda, especially service delivery to citizens and use of IT in governance.

Assuring that the agency was targeting to create 4,000,000 additional jobs by 2018, he said that 80 per cent of public service would be available online by the year in question.

 Assuring as part of the agency’s target, he said that NITDA was pushing for the adoption of local software and digital content growth of 55 per cent in four years.
He also said that the agency was committed to  40 per cent reduction in cyber crime and 50 per cent improved personal privacy and safety and deployment of new 3,000  companies in Nigeria.