NITDA, NCDMB Promote ICT Local Content Production

NITDA, NCDMB Promote ICT Local Content Production

The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and the Nigeria Content Development & Monitoring Board (NCDMB) have decided to partner in promoting indigenous IT products and services in the country.

The Director-General of NITDA, Mallam Kashifu Inuwa and the Executive Secretary of NCDMB, Engr. Simbi Wabote agreed on the collaboration during a virtual meeting.

Mallam Inuwa said the collaboration would go a long way in sustaining information Technology (IT) innovation and incubations hubs in strategic locations across the country.

The NITDA boss added that the existing IT Hubs which have created job opportunities would be monitored in collaboration with NCDMB through an evaluation portal.

“We can partner and develop a monitoring and evaluation portal that can help us get the visibility of the number of people we have trained, monitor their progress and have a figure we can present to the government of our contribution in terms of job creation in line with President Buhari’s promise to help lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty,” Inuwa added.

He said during the peak of Coronavirus Pandemic, NITDA organised an innovation challenge with the aim of identifying solutions that could curtail the spread of the virus. Some of the participants developed a ventilator, a smart decontamination chamber and myclinic mobile application for medical consultations.

“We are currently planning more innovation challenges to identify affordable and more suitable virtual platforms for Nigeria as we are aware that even if we overcome the pandemic, the virtual meeting has come to stay because of its flexibility.”

Earlier, The Executive Secretary of NCDMB, Engr. Simbi Wabote said that the Board decided to partner with NITDA to advance the support for local ICT companies by procuring locally assembled PCs and, utilising MainOne for internet services.

by PRNigeria