The Acting Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Mr. Vincent Olatunji, at the weekend pledged the agency’s commitment to assist Plateau State develop a fresh Information Communication Technology (ICT) architecture and policy framework that will help drive development in the state.

The Acting DG who made the disclosure when he hosted the Deputy Governor of Plateau State, Prof. Sonni Gwamle Tyoden, in his office in Abuja, said the policy framework will be ready before September.

He assured that the ICT policy framework will be developed within three months, adding: “NITDA would implore Plateau state to set up an IT development agency and should be headed by a technocrat to drive the process of implementing all the necessary policy framework.”

While calling on state governments to key into NITDA’s Information Technology policy framework, he said the agency was set up by federal government to assist the country in the area of ICT deployment for rapid economic development.

The NITDA boss said: “One major area that is important to government is the IT policy which is the guidelines and standard of operations, which tells you what to do and what not to do.

“I’m happy that Plateau is one of the states that we have chosen this year, and what we shall be doing is to look at the policy area in the state and assist them in developing appropriate strategies that can reposition developmentally using ICT as the main driver of development.

NITDA has appointed some resource hands to work with the state on what we can use ICT to do and I believe this will be the foundation for us to move forward.

ViewPointNigeria Analysis

Whilst this is a commendable feat that the Plateau State Government is exploring ways of utilising ICT to solve its basic problems etc. It is imperative that the government looks introspectively within it’s domain (in Plateau) to see what existing ICT partners, organisations and experts exists, who can assist with developing such framework too.

Specifically, the indigenous organisation called nHub which was set up by a Plateau youth/entrepreneur and has made great strides in the area of developing IT strategies, frameworks and systems could be nurtured and supported by government in this regard, so as to grow this unique Plateau brand.

nHub, since its inception approximately 5 years ago has become a household name of IT development and training in the Plateau, currently with a developers headcount of over 50.

If Government partners such a small start-up IT firm like nHub, several benefits will result from it, including – empowering the youth, promoting innovation and above all create jobs.

It would be good for government to think about how it can begin to grow the Plateau economy through the support of indigenous firms and organisation.

For more information about nHub – see: http://nhubnigeria.com/

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NITDA to Assist Plateau State Develop Fresh ICT Architecture