FG inaugurates NIMC, NIPOST, NITDA governing boards
NIPOST
The Federal Government has inaugurated the governing boards of the Nigeria Identity Management Commission (NIMC), Nigeria Postal Service (NIPOST) and the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and warned them not to interfere in the award of contracts in the parastatals to avoid rancour.
Government cautioned that board members have no power to award contracts, as they are not part of the management or the tenders board.
Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Ali Pantami, who gave the warning while inaugurating the boards in Abuja, lamented that there have been many complaints from other ministries where board members are fighting the management and they completely neglect their responsibilities and whenever they meet they only discuss contracts.
Pantami, who told the board members that the government has appointed them to discharge certain responsibilities and cannot condone any form of insubordination.”
He said: “You need to carry out your responsibilities within the ambit of the law and the constitution. You need to limit yourselves within the assigned by the various enabling Act establishing the parastatals, other government policies and directives that may come up from time to time.
“Your job is to support the oversight of the parastatal and cascading the national policies that are being initiated by the supervising ministry. More than 90 per cent of the board members have been reappointed, this reappointment came as a result of our recommendation because most of you have displayed maturity in the way and manner you interact with the parastatal. I thank Mr President for accepting our recommendation by reappointing most of you to serve as chairmen and members of the board. You need to study the enabling laws establishing the parastatals to be well guided and implement them effectively.”
The minister noted that the board members inaugurated consists of 17 members for NIMC, 19 members for NITDA and eight members for NIPOST.
He observed that the sector has been recording tremendous achievements, adding that NIMC was established in 2007 and the ministry formally took over the supervision in October 2020 and inherited a database of 32 million, but today it is over 87 million, “within two years, we increased the database with more than 45 million.”
Pantami urged the board members to support the government in the actualisation of the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy for digital Nigeria that is being implemented and other policies.
