To achieve the Federal Government’s target of five-fold increase in broadband penetration in Nigeria by 2017, the National Council on Communication Technology (NCCT) has solicited the cooperation of the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.
Rising from the just concluded third meeting of the NCCT held in Yenogoa, Bayelsa State at the weekend, the body urged states in the country to sign up to the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of Communications Technology for the implementation of the ‘Smart State’ initiative, expected to facilitate the expansion of broadband services in the country.
The ‘Smart State’ initiative has already been pioneered in three states namely Lagos, Cross River and FCT; and being tested in Anambra, Bayelsa and Ondo.
Currently Nigeria has achieved about 8.4 percent in broadband penetration, but targets 30 percent by 2017.
A communiqué issued at the end of the meeting in Bayelsa, which was chaired by the Minister of Communications Technology, Dr. Omobola Johnson, explained that a ‘Smart State’ initiative is geared at engaging governors and relevant authorities at the state and federal level to address the issue of multiple taxation impeding the acceleration of the roll out of critical infrastructure across Nigeria.
Johnson said the main aim of the initiative is to ensure that effective measures are adopted to remove arbitrary charges and eradicate multiple taxation across the nation impeding the roll out of critical ICT infrastructure across Nigeria.
The communiqué also urged NIPOST to use its post offices to deploy ICT services all across the country and leverage on existing Public Access Venues (PAV) infrastructure around the country to deploy its services.
In her address at the NCCT meeting, Johnson commended Bayelsa State for signing the Smart State MoU. She indicated that the ministry is currently collaborating with Bayelsa State in a number of areas and congratulated the governor for pursuing a Digital Transformation Agenda in his state.
The minister highlighted the top priority areas of the ministry to include Connect Nigeria, which focuses on building ICT infrastructure; Connect Nigerians; ICT in government and local content.
She disclosed that the Ministry of Communications Technology has made progress in its priority areas resulting in improvements in a number of indicators including teledensity, active subscription, number of Internet users, and Internet penetration.
She also noted that steady progress was being made in software industry development and ICT in government.
Johnson assured that the Ministry of Communications Technology would provide the necessary leadership and rallying point for ensuring that the potential of the Nigerian ICT sector is fully harvested for the attainment of inclusive and sustainable development.
The council, which deliberated exhaustively on a 73-page report presented by the meeting of officials, urged states and local councils in the country to make policy changes in the areas of investing in infrastructure security and development, active collaboration in negotiating federal, state and local government jurisdiction issues as it affects ICT; establishing or strengthening where they exist ministries, agencies or authorities to build capability to coordinate ICT that will pay due attention to its investment and funding as well as development.
The communiqué also urged members to sensitise their chief executives and mobilise support for implementation of the National Addressing policy to be piloted in the six geopolitical zones with Ekiti, Nasarawa, Benue, Bayelsa, Osun, Plateau, Gombe and Anambra states as volunteers.
All states in the country were also urged to participate actively in the effort to finalise the national e-government framework.
The NCCT meeting, which considered 49 substantive memoranda in addition to a number of information memos, also called on all tiers of government in Nigeria to consider the adoption of the Open Data policy as a means of creating jobs, making data available for policy formulation and decision making as well as reducing the cost of governance and improving public service delivery.
The council also called on the Federal Government to develop and implement a National Data security policy that would be entrenched in all tiers of government and other sectors.
Other recommendations contained in the communiqué include a call for the institutionalisation of equal participation for women and girls in ICT as a matter of priority for national development and the adoption and replication of the ministry’s Digital Girls curriculum in state secondary schools across the nation.
The communiqué also urged members of the council to bring the contents of the Guidelines for Nigerian Local Content in ICT to the attention of state MDAs, ICT companies and the public in general.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Adeyemi Adepetun
Quelle/Source: The Guardian Nigeria, 22.09.2014
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