NITDA eyes review of 2007 Act to enable digital developments

The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) is hoping the NITDA Act 2007 can be reviewed to be able to accommodate new happenings in the technology space.

The Director General of the NITDA, Kashifu Abdullahi, made this known, while presenting a proposal for the realignment of ‘NITDA Act 2007’ with the tenets and ideals of Digital Economy Policy of the current administration.

Making a presentation before the relevant committees of both chambers of the National Assembly, Abdullahi said there was a need to keep up with the trend of accelerating changes within the IT ecosystem by stressing the need for the review of the ‘NITDA Act 2007’.

He also hinged the need for the review on the Buhari transformation agenda and Digital Economy policy, according to a statement by the agency.

While expressing concern over the vulnerability of human beings which he said was threatened by emerging technologies, he stated that technology disruption was the most disturbing and the least understood.

He said, “The kind of information we store on our phones and other technological gadgets make the human brain susceptible to the possibility of being hacked”.

“Technology is taking over the only thing that differentiates us (humans) from other animals”. Abdullahi stated that the era was marked by advancement in digital transformation and artificial intelligence, as he made reference to Mckinsey Global Institute’s latest report that postulated the displacement of about 20,000 million jobs by the year 2030.

He submitted that keeping up with the global pace had compelled the need to urgently mutate and realign the current ‘NITDA Act 2007’ to meet the present outlook of the emerging technology in order to secure a place for Nigeria in the emerging global digital economy and fourth industrial revolution.

The Chairman, Senate Committee on ICT and Cybercrimes, Senator Yakubu Oseni, in his remarks, affirmed that the ICT revolution had accelerated the pace of globalisation and agreed with the DG that Nigeria could not afford to lag behind.

He promised that his committee would work assiduously with the House committee and other relevant stakeholders to ensure accelerated passage of the new amendment act for NITDA.

Oseni emphasised the need to raise the bar for digital readiness in order to benefit from the unending economic and developmental opportunities that it presented.

The senator applauded NITDA’s move towards improving the digital space and pledged the support of his committee towards the actualisation of the bill into law.

The Chairman, House of Representative Committee on ICT, Abubarkar Lado, added that making all necessary amendments in regards to enacting an enabling law for NITDA was long overdue. He said because technology changed almost every minute, the legislation should be robust enough to accommodate the nature of the ecosystem.