Despite persistent calls by stakeholders for the creation of Information Technology (IT) Ministry, the Federal Government recently renamed the Communications Technology Ministry as the Ministry of Communication with the appointment of Mr. Adebayo Shittu as the new minister.
Although the IT professionals had urged the government to appoint a seasoned IT professional to head the ministry and other IT agencies so as to maximize and deepen the benefits of electronic governance and digital transformation in Nigeria, the appointment of Shittu as the new minister has started attracting reactions from the industry with the stakeholders setting their agenda for him.
Meanwhile, the new minister has said that he is committed to make IT the next major source of revenue for the economy.
Digital agenda
Setting the digital agenda for the minister, the stakeholders in the Nigerian IT ecosystem, while pushing for for expedited implementation of broadband plan, noted among other things that Shittu must leverage on the efforts of his predecessor, Dr Omobola Johnson to further transform the country into the digital economy.
Although the appointment of the minister was a welcome development, the Nigerian Computer Society (NCS), earlier in their meeting with Secretary to the Federal Government Babachir David Lawal, had urged the government to appoint an IT professional to head the ministry.
Use IT to build economy, tackle terrorism
Prof. Adesola Aderounmu, President of NCS, told Technology journalists last week in Lagos while unfolding activities for the 2015 National Information Technology Merit Award (NITMA) slated to hold Thursday in Lagos that the new minister should use IT to achieve digitalisation of the economy.
Aderounmu said: “The name of the ministry does not matter. What is important are the activities in the ministry. What is more important is how to use IT to drive the economy.”
He added: “We call for urgent deployment of IT to tackle Boko Haram and terrorism in Nigeria. NCS is ready to provide practical solutions using IT to solve the problem.”
He did not delve further into details.
-Vanguard