FG Spend About $2.8 Billion Annually On Importation Of ICT – DG NIDTA
By Ige Olugbenga
The Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Dr Isa Ali Ibrahim, has said close to $1 billion will be spent on software importation.
Over $2.8 billion is expended annually on the importation of information communications (ICT), good and services by Nigeria.
Ibrahim explained that the agency wants to ensure that information software locally produced in Nigerian are promoted and enforced.
He stated this at the weekend during the 2017 Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria, (ISPON), Presidential Dinner in Lagos.
Represented by the former acting DG of the agency, Vincent Olatunji, Ibrahim said that as a regulator of the sector, the regulatory authority was keen to ensure the Nigerian local content policy was promoted and enforced.
“We are committed to the local content policy for the development of our emerging ICT sector and for the reduction of capital flight.
“We are committed to reverse this trend of uncontrolled inflow of foreign software to the detriment or our own local software.
“We seek to identify, strengthen and promote our indigenous software as an alternative to the foreign software that currently dominated our ICT sector.
“After all, facts and figures at our disposal suggest that the local software alternatives are performing well at a much cost,” he said.
To this end, the DG signified the agency’s readiness to partner with ISPON to develop a robust database of certified software practitioners as well as a repository containing a list of the products of its members with detailed description of its expertise and available solutions that can address the peculiarities of the country and by extension, Africa.
