Standards, guidelines for ICT in Nigeria underway
By Adeyemi Adepetun
IN the quest to further reposition the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) industry in the country, the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) is set to develop a regulatory framework for standard, guidelines and operational policies for the industry.
Areas of intervention but not limited to it, according to the agency included IT intervention through policies, IT regulatory and legislative intervention, IT technical standards, IT operational guidelines, IT incentives and so on.
According to the Managing Director of Connect Technologies Ltd, Chris Uwaje, to achieve this objective, the new governing board of directors of the agency, under the Chairmanship of the former minister of state for finance, Mr. Jubril Martins-Kuye, the management had therefore through the office of the director of standards will hold a national stakeholders workshop today in Abuja and on November 17, in Lagos.
Uwaje said that the regulatory framework would describe applicable standards, guidelines and policies on information technology in Nigeria. He explained the workshop would present a national framework for IT standards and guidelines for both end-users and policy maker ends in both public and private settings of the Nigeria Nation, stressing that having identified IT objectives and usability in all sectors, the framework will ultimately become an extractable handbook for both government and industry in specifying the basic standards that must be met in handling Information Technology and Systems delivery models, project and services.
ÒThe framework, apart from providing strategic guidelines to users and policy makers is expected to be a body of standards and recommended specifications for operationalizing the Development of IT in Nigeria. As a result, this framework the intervention Domains will be presented to Stakeholders for input and to recommend appropriate guidelines to justify and technically support the usability and sustainability of each group of standardsÓ, he added.
The Connect Technology MD said the workshop scheduled for Abuja today and Lagos on November 17, 2009 respectively are in line with the design development of the Standards, Guidelines and Policies and will attempt to explore and address the following critical and challenging issues to national development in the emerging knowledge economy, including among others; formulating and drafting a National IT Standards Policy and strategy for the definition of strategic guidelines; that the workshop should also make contribution by initiating a brainstorming process and coordinating body that introduces and maintain IT advisory standards, procedures and guidelines; developing IT strategic thinking within the country by organizing sensitization seminars and identifying IT objectives in all sectors; supporting the promotion of IT in all sectors of the economy; setting the rules for competition in the IT market.
Others are defining regulatory and ethical framework of IT at the national level; in this regard, some of the areas of concern are: Intranets and internet regulation; required standards for IT businesses, (equipment and so on) in accordance with the Government policy; Privacy and transparency on the information highway and Intellectual property and content.
To him, defining and implementing a coordinating mechanism for all IT projects in public institutions and play a harmonizing role for IT development in the private sector in which efforts are aimed at a more coherent integrated system at national level; Integrating the country into the "Global Village" through appropriate information systems; reducing ICT development costs by avoiding duplication and recommending technological choices for the country and adopting equipment and software standards to be used in public institutions.
Meanwhile to actively participate in within the mission and objectives of the workshop Ð incorporating other benefits to be derived from the development of Standards, Guidelines and Policies for Information Technology in Nigeria, Stakeholders are please requested to visit http://e-testing-hub.com/nitda to make their contribution by filling the questionnaire.
