NITDA restates mandate for public sector ICT devt

THE National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), as reaffirmed its position as the only organization saddled with the responsibility of coordinating general information and communication technology development in the public sector.

NITDA’s Director-General, Peter Jack, at the weekend, said the agency was established in April 2001 under the federal ministry of communication technology with the mandate of coordinating general Information and Communications Technology (ICT) development activities in the public sector.

This, according to him, include designing a framework for the planning, research, standardization, application, coordination, monitoring, evaluation and regulation of IT practices, activities and systems in the country.

In furtherance of this mandate to drive ICT awareness and Internet penetration in the country, the NITDA boss said: “By virtue of instrumentality of NITDA as the foremost ICT regulatory agency in the country, Galaxy backbone limited, an ICT services provider, was established in 2006. Through NITDA, Galaxy Backbone was created to coordinate and harmonize the approach to ICT acquisition, operation and use in the public sector.

“As an ICT limited liability company, this was done with a view enabling the Federal Government to derive more value from its investments in the ICT industry by eliminating duplication, establishing economies of scale, enhancing interoperability of systems and improving government’s capacity to deliver economic services.”