The Government of Plateau State led by Governor Caleb Mannaseh Mutfwang has restated her commitment towards developing and expanding the Tech Ecosystem in the State with the view to making it the Tech hub of Nigeria as a whole and create jobs for young people.

This was disclosed by the Director General of the Plateau State Information and Communication Technology Development Agency (PICTDA) Mr Dominic Gwaman Datong while receiving the report from the ICT Technical Steering Committee made up of representatives from Tertiary Institutions in the State, Technology Hubs, other Technology Companies and the Nigerian Computer Society (NCS) in Plateau State led by Mr Princeton Omo of Silicon Gate Softwares.

The DG PICTDA received the report on behalf of the Governor of Plateau State, at the conference hall of the Office of the Secretary to the Government of Plateau, Government House, Rayfield on Monday 15th January, 2024. This follows series of engagements with between government and the tech community is the state aimed at exploring better ways of improving the tech ecosystem.

While presenting the report Chairman of the ICT Technical Steering Committee and PLATEC, Mr Princeton Omo and Sylvanus Koppe in their separate remarks thanked the Plateau State Government for the opportunity in hope that government will consider the recommendations of the report.

In his remark shortly after receiving the 49 page report the DG PICTDA thanked them for sacrificing time and resources to put together the report. He said that the state is only an enabler, while the the tech commumity are the developers. He said that the Mutfwang administration is interested in creating jobs through ICT and assured them that the recommendations presented will be considered, while restating the comment of the Mutfwang administration to do more for the tech community, starting with the provision of Murtala House facility to PICTDA, which when fully equipped is expected to create hundreds of IT Jobs for young people in the state. This will serve as part of the score card of the administration by the end of the year 2024.

Recall that the administration of Governor Caleb Mannaseh Mutfwang had announced that it has given the Plateau State Information and Communication Technology Development Agency (PICTDA) three floors at the Murtala House comprising of offices and mini halls for the purpose of setting up a facility that will serve the training needs in partnership with the Private Sector in the State in order to build new jobs and produce professionals in the Tech Industry with requisite internationally recognized certification.

On Friday 15th December, 2023 the DG PICTDA Mr Dominic Gwaman Datong went on an assessment tour of the Murtala House facility in Jos in company of staff of the agency, members of the ICT Technical Steering Committee (comprising of members of the tech community in the state) as well as Tech Companies within the State.

During the tour Mr Dominic Gwaman Datong took time out to assess the facility and also share the immediate, mid term and long term plans of Governor Caleb Mutfwang in order to make the facility functional.

While commenting following the tour of the facility, members of the Technical Committee present expressed optimism that the current administration is really matching words with actions given that within months, the dynamics of the tech ecosystem has changed considering the significant commitment of a facility and a promise of equipping it.

According to them, with what has been attained so far within a very short period of time, including the shared facility there is no limit to what can be achieved in the State. In fulfilment of their own commitment to the development of the tech ecosystem in the State, the Technical Steering Committee submitted the ICT Strategic Action and Implementation Report which captures proposed areas of collaboration with government to establish favourable policy and regulatory framework that will encourage the growth of the ICT Sector in Plateau State, interventions of government in the provision of ICT Infrastructure, training and retraining of skilled personnel for the service of the industry, avenues for drawing investments to the ICT business community, opening up of the Tech Community in the State to local and international markets and other suggestions that may help steer the ICT Sector on the Plateau.

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Plateau State Government Receives ICT Strategic Action and Implementation Report, Restates Commitment to Expand Tech Ecosystem with Shared Facility with Tech Companies