The National Information Technology Development Agency, (NITDA) has solicited the support of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) establishment of an Information Technology Hub in the territory similar to the popular Silicon Valley in California.
NITDA Director General, Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, made the request during a courtesy visit last Friday to the FCT Minister, Muhammad Musa Bello.
Abdullahi said, “NITDA is one of the drivers of the initiative and the initiative has identified five key stakeholders – universities as the producer of the human capital, government as the enabler because the government’s role in business is to provide the enabling environment. Then corporate organisations as the market; innovators and entrepreneurs, and venture capitals.”
The NITDA boss, who noted that ICT was central to the development of any country, said it is the third major contributor to the Nigeria’s GDP.
Responding, the minister expressed the commitment of the Administration in the deployment of information and communication technology (ICT) in the management of the FCT.
He said, “At the FCT level, many of our agencies are already using ICT to process our work and we are moving towards improving on that.”
He assured his guests that the FCTA will support NITDA in its quest to achieve the shared dream for the nation’s capital.
“Being in Abuja, I can assure you that we will always be available to partner with your organization to deploy whatever you need to deploy, whether it is solutions to schools that are e-based or solution to security matters or traffic management or the health system. In all these areas, we have some form of IT deployment already.
“So, it’s just a matter of streamlining and upgrading and you can use Abuja as one giant platform where you can showcase what is possible. When people come in here, you can show them what you are doing. All the institutions that you require to do all the deployments are available in the FCT Administration,” Bello said.
The minister stressed that Nigeria can achieve a lot by leveraging on the ICT platform.
“From what we have seen and what we read, the youth population is already fully ready for it. For many young Nigerians, e- banking is the only form of banking that they know.”
“It is very obvious also, if there is anything about COVID-19, is the fact that it has brought to the fore, the need for technology and the need for e-governance,” Belli said.
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