‘NITDA’s proposed bill will open new vistas in ICT sector’

The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has revealed that the proposed amendments to its Act are for the advancement of the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) development in the country.

The Head of Legal Services, NITDA, Mr Emmanuel  Edet, who made this statement at a webinar organised by the Nigeria Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (NIEEE), in Lagos recently also stressed that the bill establishing NITDA was passed and signed to into law in 2007 for the regulation and development of information technology in Nigeria.

Edet, who spoke on the theme, ‘The proposed NITDA Amendment Bill: Impact of professionals,’ said the legacy bill of 2007 could no longer address the new developments in information technology space because of changes that had occurred in the ICT sector since then.

According to him, “We need to move on with the vision that works to determine what we are going to meet in the IT industry in the future.

“We are moving from digitisation to digitalisation so as to change business module and provide revenues when we produce opportunities,” he stressed.

Edet further emphasised the importance of collaborative regulations for all actors in the digital ecosystem, with NITDA at the centre of the process which influenced the request for a reassessment of NITDA’S mandate.

Meanwhile, the National Chairman of NIEEE, Mr Michael Akan, disclosed that the world has gone into a digital age where data are more valuable than oil and that modern economies are sustained digitally.

Akan, who revealed the Institute’s full support for the approval of the proposed Amendment Act, said the objective of the Act is to create an effective, impartial and independent regulatory framework for the development of the Nigerian ICT sector and support the development of the digital economy.

He further hinted that this reason informed the need to put a formidable regulation in place to accommodate the fast changing digital space.

The NIEEE National Chairman further revealed that Nigeria has over 20,000 electrical electronic engineers as well as other professionals who would be affected by the NITDA Amendment Act, but that the association realises the need for careful consideration.

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