Nigeria has been in a passionate pursuit of global set standards in her Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector, since the establishment of the National Information and Technology Development Agency( NITDA), which was set up to manage and supervise the ICT sector.
As part of efforts to improve the sector, the ICT regulatory body signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Microsoft Nigeria, to strengthen ICT Innovation and adoption in the country.
Sequel to this partnership both NITDA and Microsoft will join forces in ICT development and innovation in Nigeria, particularly in the areas of cloud policies, data protection and privacy laws and data classification frameworks.
NITDA is obliged to create a framework for the planning, research, development, standardization, application, coordination, monitoring, evaluation and regulation of Information Technology practices in Nigeria.
At the fore front of the Buhari-led Administration are priorities which include anti-corruption drive, security; private sector led economic growth and job creation, youth training and skills development. Technology will be at the heart of driving and building a digital economy which will bring these priorities to fruition.
Speaking on the collaboration, NITDA’s Director-General/CEO, Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim, stated ‘We are delighted to collaborate with Microsoft; as regulators, our mandate is to create the right policies that foster innovation and help build a robust digital economy. Nigeria is a forward-thinking economy and one which is ready to compete in the 4th industrial revolution by having policies which drive growth and encourage investments. He further added ‘This is a positive move towards digitalization of government processes and provides a tremendous opportunity to scale up citizen’s access to services and concurrently improve the quality of services’
Also speaking further on the partnership, General Manager Microsoft Nigeria, Akin Banuso said,‘‘We are excited to collaborate with NITDA. Microsoft is committed to providing technology you can trust; We have been actively involved in discussions with governments around the world to digitally transform are also frequently asked by other governments to identify best practices for moving to the cloud; we are honoured to be able to work with the Nigerian government on this framework. Banuso added ‘This collaboration aims to foster detailed discussions of recent regulatory and policy development, including global best practices, to create cloud regulatory frameworks appropriate for driving innovation and improving how the public sector operates and delivers citizen services”
Expectedly, NITDA and Microsoft will set up a joint working force for the implementation of the terms of partnership.
