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Tag: Kashifu Inuwa

  • FG reiterates commitment on Digital Economy

    FG reiterates commitment on Digital Economy

    The Federal Government has reiterated its commitment towards developing a digital economy for Nigeria, especially with the advent of COVID-19 pandemic.

    Dr Isa Pantami, Minister of Communications and Digital Economy said this at the Nigeria Innovation Summit 2020 organised by Innovation Hub Africa on Tuesday in Abuja.

    Pantami was represented by Mr Kashifu Inuwa, Director General, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), at the event.

    He said that President Muhammadu Buhari was committed to ensuring that Nigeria was abreast with global innovation trend as well as positioning the country to become a digital economic giant in Africa.

    Pantami said that the theme of the 2020 summit “Innovation In Critical Times” was interesting, because COVID-19 has forced people to embrace new practices and innovations as a means of reducing the impact of the disease.

    “In Nigeria, we are lucky to have the right leadership at this time, the government under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari,has set the foundation to innovate even before COVID-19.

    “On Oct. 23, 2019, the President renamed and expanded our ministry’s mandate to cover the digital economy,also on Nov. 28,2019, the President launched the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy for Digital Nigeria, and he urged us to start implementation immediately.

    “On March 19,just before COVID-19 lockdown, the President launched the National Broadband Plan and unveiled Digital Nigeria initiatives, and also launched digital skills and literacy trainings,” he said.

    The minister said that COVID-19 has been the worst health and economic crisis of the present generation.

    He said that the World Bank predicted that COVID-19 would lead the global economy into the worst recession since World War 11.

    “According to World Bank, it is also a learning crisis because at the end of March, over 180 countries closed schools, forcing over 1.5 billion students to stay home and we are forced to unlearn, relearn how we live and work to navigate our way out of the pandemic, “Pantami said.

    He said that the ministry has been championing efforts on remote working and setting the pace for innovation since the advent of the pandemic.

    “We conceptualised and implemented groundbreaking initiatives under the lockdown and those initiatives set the foundation that helped us as a country to innovate and navigate our ways from the crisis mode to the recovery stage.

    “We collaborated with stakeholders in the ecosystem to host the COVID-19 Innovation Challenge, where innovators were invited to showcase their ideas on how to manage the pandemic.

    “The winners got prizes and fundings that helped them turn their ideas into impactful ventures and we handheld them to develop into products and services,” he said.

    He named some of the exciting inventions at the competition to include an indigenous ventilator currently being tested on an animal, a smart decontamination chamber and MyClinic, an online platform that enable users to hold video consultations with medical personnel.

  • Nigeria @60: FG presents N16.5m to winners of anniversary branding competition

    Nigeria @60: FG presents N16.5m to winners of anniversary branding competition

    The Federal Government has presented a total of N16.5 million as cash prizes to the nine winners of Nigeria at 60 Diamond and Innovation Challenge.

    The Diamond and Innovation Challenge is an initiative of the Inter-Ministerial Committee set up by President Muhammadu Buhari to encourage Nigerian youths on creativity and innovation.

    The challenge was segmented into three categories- Poetry, Slogan and Photography, with three winners emerging from each of the categories.

    In the Poetry category, Kalu Chioma took the first position; Mustapha Dauda was second, while Usman Patrick placed third.

    In the slogan category, Nwakuba Ezinne took first position, Yusuf Mohammed second, while Sani Ibrahim placed third.

    Amau Oluwadausimi came first in the photography category, Leke Adebule came second, while Sampson Emeka placed third.

    Those who came first were presented with a N3 million cheque each, while those who took the second position got N1.5 million each.

    Those who placed third were presented with N1 million cheque each.

    Speaking at the ceremony, Dr Isa Pantami, Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, said the competition was thrown open to all Nigerians in line with the presidential mandate to enable Nigerians own the Diamond celebration.

    He commended the winners for their creativity and innovative prowess and charged them to sustain the vision of patrotism.

    ‘‘What we did was to allow our citizens to be owners of the diamond celebration to own it up.

    “We only opened it up for all our citizens to come up with innovative slogans, poetry and photography.

    “Nigerians are highly innovative and have very creative minds and we feel it is better we allow our people to own the celebration.

    “We will continue to encourage them to do so, it should be the beginning and not the end. I encouraged you to do more in future,’’ Pantami said.

    Mr Kashifu Inuwa, Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) earlier, said the event was designed to make the Nigerian Diamond celebration more exciting and inclusive even with the COVID-19 pandemic.

    ‘‘We needed to come up with a platform to make it digitally driven since we are in digital age.

    “We needed to come up with a platform to do a digital and innovative challenge, the first time we are using digital platform, to engage Nigerians in Independent Anniversary celebration,” he said.

    He acknowledged that the process was seamless with many Nigerians participating.

    The Chairman of the selection panel, Dr Usman Gambo said ‘‘opportunity was given to all Nigerians to participate in the contest.’’

    Gambo said a total of 3,258 participants submitted entries for the challenge out of which 1,931 entries came for Poetry; 630 for Slogan and 689 for photography.

    According to him, there are series of selection process by the panel that comprised of linguistic and poetry experts, who carried out the screening before arriving at 60 and finally at nine grand winners.

    He added that some of the criteria used in the selection process included, relevance to the theme of the Diamond celebration; originality; creativity; impact and presentation by the innovators.

    The theme of the celebration is “Together at 60”.

  • FG mulls policy on zero rating for educational websites

    FG mulls policy on zero rating for educational websites

    Federal Government says it is considering a new National Policy for zero rating on educational websites to allow for consumption of contents without charges, to mitigate the impact of COVID-19, on education sector.

    Dr Isa Pantami, Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, said this while delivering an address at a webinar organised by Lead Inspire Network and monitored in Abuja.

    The theme of the webinar was “Enhancing Virtual Learning and the Challenges of Internet Penetration in Nigeria.”

    Pantami, represented by Dr Usman Gambo, Director, Information Technology Infrastructure Solutions, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) said the policy would contain appropriate incentives for mobile network operators and internet service providers.

    The minister agreed that sufficient access to the internet was essential for the development of an informative society and thatvgovernment was also working to increase the broadband penetration from its current level.

    “Currently, broadband penetration stands at 40.18 per cent and the plan is to make it 70 per cent by 2025. This is the target we set for ourselves in the Nigerian National Broadband Plan.

    “This will be of great benefit to the education sector and we would focus more on enabling appropriate contents, infrastructure, capabilities for learning and teaching,” he said.

    He added that few agencies under the ministry had established digital centres, capacity training centres, e-accessibility centres, school knowledge centres, e-Libraries, ICT Hubs and innovation parks across the country to propel broadband penetration.

    “In just one year, we have deployed over 200 of these centres across the country and they are mostly situated in rural areas, equipped with at least 25 computers, back-up power supply and free internet service.

    “In addition to providing free internet services, the centres also serve as innovation hubs and learning centres for the local community,” Pantami said.

    He said that NITDA had issued Framework and Guidelines for Public Internet Access to regulate government approach to deepen internet penetration and bridge the digital divide.

    Prof. Umar Danbata, the Executive Vice Chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission stated that COVID-19 had created a new level for education that required a new approach.

    Represented by Dr Henry Nkemadu, a Director with the commission, Danbata acknowledged that high cost of Right of Way, multiple taxation, operating expenses and economic downturn had affected internet penetration but reiterated that government was putting measures in place to ease the challenges.

    Mr Sope Afolayan, Co-Founder, Lead Inspire Network, said the event was aimed at providing equal access to children at all levels and redirect the thinking of policy makers on the need to see acquisition of education beyond the four walls of the classroom.

  • Digital transformation: NITDA sets pace for enterprise architecture

    Digital transformation: NITDA sets pace for enterprise architecture

    The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) says it has set the pace for the implementation of the Nigeria Government Enterprise Architecture (NGEA) towards a digital transformation of the economy.

    NITDA Director General, Mr Kashifu Inuwa, said this at the 12th annual conference of Abuja chapter of Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA), in Abuja.

    While delivering the keynote address at the conference, focused on the theme “Accelerating Digital Transformation: The Nigerian Trends,” Inuwa said that NITDA set up the NGEA framework to drive short, medium, and long term digital transformation of the economy.

    He added that the framework provided a guide, enabling other government parastatals to easily execute digital initiatives and it has also reduced the complexity associated with digital transformation and accelerated adoption across the board.

    “The framework we designed at NITDA is in line with the digital transformation foundation laid by President Muhammadu Buhari.

    “In October 2019, the president renamed and expanded the mandate of our ministry to cover Digital Economy and also unveiled National Digital Economy Policy for digital Nigeria.

    “On the same day, the president also directed all Federal Public Institutions (FPIs) to set up a Digital Transformation Technical Working Group which was achieved Aug. 27, where the first set of 100 Federal Public Institutions’ digital transformation working group was inaugurated.

    “This is to consolidate on the achievements recorded under some of our initiatives such as the Nigeria e-Government Master Plan (NeGMP) Nigeria e-Government Interoperability Framework (Ne-GIF) and Nigeria Government Enterprise Architecture (NGEA).

    “The framework firstly is to promote one government digital service and to guarantee the autonomy of Federal Public Institutions to make individual decisions around business processes, digital services, and applications,” he said.

    Inuwa further said the framework with seven layers, which included business, service, data, application, IT Infrastructure, security and performance, centered around people and processes.

    According to him, each layer has high-level expectations for FPIs, as well as specifies best practices, standards, tools, reference models and recommendations that will help FPIs achieve their value propositions and meet citizens’ expectations for government digital services.

    He also said that the COVID-19 reality had necessitated a digital transformation strategy that focused more on how to deliver digital service to Nigerians.

    “Haven understood how important digital capabilities are in driving digital transformation, we have embarked on upskilling and reskilling Nigerians with appropriate knowledge and skills which are the necessary building blocks for digital transformation.

    “We have trained over 26,000 Nigerians this year alone on different digital skills to help them understand and embrace digital transformation.

    “In addition to the capacity building, we have provided thousands of digital tools to Nigerians, ranging from artisan toolbox set, smart mobile devices, laptops,to building community training centers, IT hubs, innovation,incubation hubs and center of excellence for emerging technologies,” he added.

  • Nigeria must prepare its citizens for 4IR -NITDA

    Nigeria must prepare its citizens for 4IR -NITDA

    The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), says Nigeria must begin to prepare its citizens towards embracing the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), driven by emerging technologies, in line with global realities.

    NITDA Director-General, Mr Kashifu Inuwa, said this while receiving Prof. Lawal Taura, Vice Chancellor, Sule Lamido University, Dutse, Jigawa and his team on an intervention visit in Abuja on Thursday.

    4IR is the automation of traditional manufacturing and industrial practices, using modern smart technology like artificial Intelligence, cloud computing, robotics, among others.

    “With what is happening today and how COVID-19 is fast forwarding the industrial revolution, it has become imperative to increase our level of preparedness and develop capacity in the area of emerging technology.

    “We need to look at the educational sector and focus more on skills and research that can be used to develop the economy. People should not see education as the end but means to the end.

    “We need to look for ways to change people’s mind on paper qualification and inculcate in them those skills required for the imminent industrial revolution and also focus more on science and technology,” he said.

    Inuwa recalled that a research by some scholars with Microsoft, indicated that by 2030, 800 million jobs would be lost unless people up-skill and re-skill themselves, adding that about 149 million new jobs would be created through Artificial Intelligence and other emerging technologies.

    The director general commended the institution for making progress in courses like agriculture, Information and Communication Technology, Innovations and Entrepreneurship in its programmes.

    According to him, there are potentials that can facilitate the nation’s drive to digital economy in those courses.

    He emphasised that the agency was already in partnership with Jigawa Government on digital transformation and smart initiatives and could still collaborate with the institution on research to enhance its projects, especially in agriculture.

    Earlier, Taura said the school’s planned new programmes for the 2020/21 academic session necessitated the intervention, hence the collaboration.

    “We are introducing new courses. We need these interventions and any other support we can get from the agency will be appreciated,” he said.

  • FG inaugurates 129 MDAs to champion digital transformation

    FG inaugurates 129 MDAs to champion digital transformation

    The Federal Government on Thursday inaugurated 129 Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs), to be part of the first phase of Federal Public Institutions (FPIs), Digital Transformation Technical Working Groups (DT-TWGs).

    The inauguration was organised by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), and undertaken by Dr Isa Pantami, Minister of Communications and Digital Economy in Abuja.

    The group’s inauguration was to ensure that MDAs were part of the Federal Government’s agenda toward developing a digital economy.

    The inauguration held concurrently with the launching of the Government-to-Government Nigeria Government Enterprise Architecture (NGEA) portal, www.ngea.gov.ng which would enable the group to work in synergy.

    Pantami said that digital economy was transforming the way the public sector operated and delivered services to customers, hence the need for MDAs to key in.

    “The digital economy requires among other things adaptive policies, strategies, regulations, standardised infrastructure, globally-competitive workforce, carefully orchestrated and coordinated digital governance structure.

    “Without appropriate digital governance, it becomes difficult for digital investments and implementation to meet strategic objectives and expectations,” Pantami said.

    According to the minister, digital governance is key to managing digital transformation successfully and the failure of IT projects is also being experienced by a number of FPIs.

    He blamed lack of an appropriate digital governance structure either at the individual organisation level or on the government’s end for failures of IT projects.

    Pantami also said that the group’s inauguration was heeding to President Muhammadu Buhari’s directives at the opening ceremony of e-Nigeria conference of 2019.

    “The president ordered that DT-TWGs be established in Federal Public Institutions (FPIs) as e-Government champions and be part of the digital governance structure for the implementation of Nigeria e-Government Master Plan (NeGMP) and National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS).

    “The NDEPS was unveiled and launched by the President on the same day with developmental regulation, digital literacy and skills, solid Infrastructure and service infrastructure as the pillars.

    “The other pillars are soft Infrastructure, Digital Services Development and Promotion, Digital Society and Emerging Technologies and Indigenous Content Promotion and Adoption.

    “The DT-TWG will be an instrument to the implementation of four pillars in NDEPS,” the minister said.

    Pantami said that the capacities of the DT-TWGs members needed to be developed in transformation management, innovation and technical capabilities to enable them to perform the task ahead.

    He urged NITDA to engage the members and their institutions for capacity building and also directed the members to engage their respective staff members for implementation.

    Mr Kashifu Inuwa, Director-General of NITDA, said that digital transformation initiatives might fail if there was lack of strategic architecture.

    Inuwa said the DT-TWGs was being put in place to ensure FPIs were properly guided against pitfalls while implementing digital initiatives, government businesses and digital technologies were properly aligned for the acceleration of digital transformation.

    He added that the Nigeria e-Government Interoperability Framework (Ne-GIF) and NGEA formed the foundation for taking government-wide IT deployment from silo-based to an integrated whole-of-government approach.

    “The current silo situation is as a result of the fact that each public institution is good at deploying IT systems for each of its strategic initiative and specific service.

    “Institutions do not consider national IT architecture and interoperability framework that follows and ensures a pre-determined process, operating model for IT systems deployment across public Institutions.

    “The seven layers of NGEA which are Business, Service, Data, Application, IT Infrastructure, Security and Performance are centred around people and processes.

    “Each layer has high-level expectations for FPIs and as well specifies best practices, standards, tools, reference models and recommendations that will help achieve the value propositions and citizens’ expectations for government digital services,” Inuwa said.

    He stated that NITDA had established NGEA/Ne-GIF National Implementation Committee comprising of about 40 critical FPIs representatives and IT industry players to govern and advise on government-wide digitisation of processes,functions.

    According to him, there is provision of personalised advice to FPIs on their current state of IT deployment and recommendations on business process and IT deployment optimisation, among other intervention initiatives.

    He reiterated that achieving whole-of-Government, calls for a shift in the culture of the public service, the mindset of the public officers and the way e-Government and IT systems were being deployed.

    “The deployment should automatically enable seamless interoperability and exchange of data across Public Institutions.”

    The director-general said the group was saddled with the responsibilities of advocating for digital economy, transformation related activities, guiding automation and digitisation of government business processes, among other functions.

    Inuwa said the DT-TWG comprised of five members cutting across strategic departments with two persons from the IT/ICT/e-Government department and three (3) other persons from core business departments.

    He added that over 400 MDAs were accessed before the selection was made.

  • NITDA pioneers ICT consumer protection forum

    NITDA pioneers ICT consumer protection forum

    The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has initiated a Consumer Protection Forum designed to address consumers’ complaints over poor indigenous IT products and service delivery.

    Mr Kashifu Inuwa, the Director General of NITDA disclosed this on Tuesday in a webinar that was monitored in Abuja, with focus on ” Virtual Digital Services Consumer Protection Forum.”

    A draft framework on Alternative Dispute Resolution for the ICT sector of the country was also presented for review at the online meeting.

    Inuwa, represented by Dr Usman Gambo, Director, IT Infrastructure Solutions, said the forum, the first of its kind in the country, would enable the agency settle such complaints in a non-litigious manner.

    The director general said the forum was very critical to the success of NITDA’s strategy, which was aimed at building qualitative indigenous content for consumption in the ICT sector.

    Inuwa said that the multiple complaints and quality of ICT products and services had led to the conceptualisation of the consumer forum as well as drafting the alternative dispute resolution in ICT framework.

    According to him, leaving such issues unattended will lead to lack of confidence in local ICT products and services, which in turn attract very low patronage and cause job loss.

    He reiterated that NITDA was committed to protecting digital products and services for consumers, and encouraged citizens to patronise made in Nigeria ICT products.

    Inuwa said that NITDA had been playing its role in ensuring that it maximised opportunities embedded in the challenges posed by the Coronavirus pandemic.

    The director emphasised that the Federal Government had prioritised addressing challenges of the information technology sector from a holistic point of view.

    Mr Olayinka Adejube, Director, Standards Guidelines and Frameworks, in his remarks, said the event was for service consumers and digital service providers to interact on possible ways of improving services.

    “This event is to bring consumer and service providers to interact and see areas where there is need to work together to ensure that the essence of all the investment in digital economy is not wasted.”

  • NITDA clears 62 IT projects worth N1trn in 5 months – DG

    The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), through its IT project clearance mandate, had assessed and cleared 62 IT related projects worth N1,168,145,213,150 from January to May.

    The Director-General of NITDA, Mr Kashifu Inuwa, disclosed this in a virtual meeting monitored in Abuja, organised by the agency’s subsidiary, Office for Nigerian Content (ONC) development.

    Inuwa, represented by Dr Usman Gambo, Director ,IT Infrastructure Solutions, said clearing of the projects was a prove that President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration was committed to digitalise government services, as most of the projects were service based.

    The meeting which focused on “Harnessing Indigenous Solutions for Public Sector Innovation and Digital Development”, was targeted at assessing the nation’s digital experience.

    “The assessment shows that about N64,878,725,488 was generated from software products and software enabled projects.

    “This has shown that more can be achieved with a deeper collaboration between the public and private sector going forward using technology as a driver for public services.

    “For successful development and delivery of government digital services, it is significantly important that innovative Nigerian companies are engaged very early in the project from the conceptualisation and design stages”, he said.

    He added that the effect of the pandemic on the economy, governance and public service delivery has spurred a greater urgency for the development of government digital services and digital economy for the country.

    Inuwa further said that NITDA would soon issue frameworks for the development of government digital services, public-private sector partnership in its products.

    According to him, there is an urgent need for government to accelerate the delivery of government digital services for the benefit of Nigerians.

    The director-general said that collaborations would deepen the opportunity for learning and create domesticated solutions for societal problems.

    The National Coordinator of ONC, Mr Kassim Sodangi, in his remarks said the key objective for clearing IT projects was to ensure consolidation of Federal Government’s adopted solutions.

    “We want to encourage solutions beyond issuing procurement notices, adverts, while Ministries, Departments and Agencies will be able to sit down with indigenous content providers to discuss and come up with a plan or strategy to drive the development of the solution,” he said.

    Sodangi added that indigenous content development and adaptation was the pillar of ONC which focused on building local capacity, adopted and deployed as central plan for the development of digital economy.

    The coordinator also said that they would assess the Public Procurement Act, explore and examine the Presidential Executive Order 003 and 005 as it affects planning, execution of projects and promotion of Nigerian content in contracts, science, engineering and technology.

    “These documents will form the fulcrum for discussing on what can happen and what are the opportunities in the bylaw and policy that will drive the development of co-creation and co-planning of projects.”

    He urged MDAs to synergise and explore the frameworks, policy and laws available which could be incorporated to designing programmes and solutions addressing our local problems.

  • COVID-19: NITDA academy admits 14,000 learners

    The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has admitted over 14,000 active students into its virtual academy to study 47 courses on emerging technologies.

    The Director-General of NITDA, Mr Kashifu Inuwa, disclosed this on Thursday in an online meeting organised by the Association of Telecommunication Companies of Nigeria (ATCON).

    The meeting focused on the Socio-Economic and Political Impact of COVID-19 on Telecom and ICT sector in Nigeria.

    Recall that the NITDA Virtual Academy was launched in May by Dr Isa Pantami, the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy.

    The platform was targeted at helping to engage young citizens to spend their time meaningfully and learn new technologies that will help create and shape the post-COVID era.

    Inuwa said inspite the effect of COVID-19 in all sectors, there was hope because the crisis had forced people to change behaviour and adapt to new habits.

    “Coronavirus has forced us to change our behaviour and adapt to new habits.

    “New trends have emerged, we do everything remotely, working, learning, meeting, workshops, zoom party, e-wedding and so on,” he said.

    He also said that NITDA had successfully organised various programmes during the COVID-19 pandemic, including the Innovation Challenge.

    According to him, the innovation challenge is designed to help with ideas that can contain and cushion the effect of the virus as well as keep the economy up.

    “We are working with the Presidential Taskforce on COVID-19 and Nigerian Centre of Disease Control (NCDC) to identify some of the ideas they think are relevant for them.

    “The ideas can be used as a testing ground to help the initiatives by the start-ups develop their ideas into products,” he said.

    He added that the challenge had over 2,000 applicants, while five start-ups were selected to pitch at the Open Demo and Prize Giving Day, and three emerged winners.

    Abdullahi stressed that it was part of the agency’s initiatives to identify youths with innovative ideas, take them to innovation hubs, incubate and accelerate their ideas into products or services.

    He said the agency does that through its Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship Support Scheme.

    He added that they were working with relevant stakeholders to identify hubs as well as start-ups that can enjoy the initiative.

    Commenting on using new technologies in farming, the director-general stated that the Nigerian Adopted Village for Smart Agriculture (NAVSA) would encourage farmers to focus more on digital platforms and precision smart farming.

    “To ensure significant improvement in crop yield, quality of farm produce, efficiency and productivity, increased profit margin, we need harvest focus, sales of farm produce and eco-friendly agricultural practice.

    “We are working with 150 farmers to start the pilot project, because the agriculture value chain contribute the highest percentage to our Gross Domestic Product.

    “With ICT as an enabler, we can help boost its projection,” he added.