By Clifford Agugoesi, Editor-in-Chief

Today, August 20, marks exactly one year  that the current  DG of NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi was appointed by Nigerian Leader Muhammadu Buhari, to step into the big shoes of the current Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami.   The NITDA DG did not see the appointment coming then, but come it did.

Feeling On Appointment As NITDA DG

“I must say, it was an amazing journey.  This isn’t something that I expected or even envisaged. It was indeed a pleasant surprise.  It, however, shows the confidence my boss and mentor, Dr.  Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, FNCS, FBCS, FIIM, has in my ability to the extent of recommending me to President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, to take a giant leap step into his shoes. It is a great honor, and I am putting in my best not to disappoint the expectation of my boss and mentor, Mr.  President, Nigerian Youths as well as the country as a whole,” he said in a recent inclusive interview.

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Self Assessment As NITDA Boss

Interestingly, Abdullahi is not a stranger in his turf.  “Well, as you may be aware, I am not new in  Nigeria’s IT industry.  I am at home being at the helm of affairs in NITDA. As a person that is open to new approaches and strategies, with the experiences I have gained for the last 15 years in the IT sector, spanning between the private and the public sectors and through unceasing study, my team and I have worked diligently to ensure the continuous development of the IT sector in Nigeria over the past 12 months. Remember, I picked it up from a good place to consolidate upon, considering the foundation laid by my boss and mentor, Dr Isa Ali Ibrahim (Pantami), FNCS, FBCS, FIIM.”

Biggest Challenge As NITDA Boss

And, the winner is: COVID-19 Pandemic! Why did an unknown disease pick up the golden crown as his chief tormentor?  Abdullahi says: “The COVID-19 Pandemic has had devastating effects on countries globally. While looking at the management of the pandemic as challenging, it has been a turning point for revolutionizing of Digital Technologies to deliver products and services across the world, which is what we refer to as the new normal. Therefore, we did not miss the opportunity to prepare for the impact of the pandemic and also provide adequate support to insulate the Technology and Innovation Ecosystem.”

Key Mandates To Focus On

His agency boasts s a generic and specific mandate of fostering the development and growth of IT in Nigeria but what aspect of this sweeping remit would attract his utmost focus?  Hear the response of the Chief Technology Adviser of Nigeria: “You may be aware that NITDA is implementing a strategic roadmap for the development of Nigeria’s IT sector. It consists of 7 pillars that are in alignment with the 8 pillars of the National Digital Economy Policy & Strategy(NDEPS). The 7 key pillars of our Roadmap are IT Regulation, Capacity Building, Digital Inclusion, Digital Job Creation, Government Digital Service Promotion, Local Content Development, and Cybersecurity. We have rolled out several policies, regulations, and programmes, focusing on those areas. However, as the roadmap is set to expire this year as is the Nigeria Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) which it draws from,  NITDA has  already commenced reviewing it as well as developing the next plan, which will soon be launched. It is in alignment with and takes cognizance of the NDEPS, the Nigeria Economic Sustainability Plan (NESP) and other important plans and policies of this administration.”

Local Content

Recently, local OEMs decried poor implementation of the local content policy on PC procurement by MDAs. Being the agency that regulates them, has NITDA waded in to help them get better patronage from the MDAs?  The DG responds: “Certainly! NITDA has demonstrated great support and has ensured improved patronage of indigenous OEMs in the last 3 years. It is a fact that the purchase of local devices by MDAs is unprecedented within these years compared to previous years before 2018. For instance, in 2015-2016 less than 250,000 devices were sold by indigenous OEMs. However, due to the intervention of NITDA, records shows that in 2018/2019 alone OEMs sold three times the numbers sold prior to 2017 with about 778,886 of locally assembled devices sold in 2018 and 2019.

“However, there are some challenges with the implementation of the Presidential Executive Order 003 for promotion of local content in the procurement of MDAs and the NITDA issued Guidelines for Nigerian Content Development in ICT, which mandates MDAs also to purchase Nigerian hardware products. NITDA is implementing the Executive Order and Guidelines vigorously through active surveillance and IT Projects assessment and clearance process of the Agency. Nevertheless, procurement law requires OEMs to either bid directly or work with other contractors to bid to ensure transparency and value for money. If MDAs violate the process NITDA can then be notified for action.

“There is also a challenge with the quality of some of the indigenous brands. In an effort to address this challenge, in 2018, we mandated these OEMs to go through a rigorous certification process requiring them to have ISO 9001:2015 for quality management systems. This, we believe, will ensure they are able to provide products that meet quality and regulatory requirements always. Currently, only 3 out of 10 previously registered OEMs have been fully certified.”

Review Of IT Policy

On this question, Abdullahi presents an update.  “It may interest you to know that our supervising Ministry, Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy handles policy-related issues. You may be aware that there were several attempts at reviewing the policy in 2012, 2013 and 2017. Currently, with my boss and mentor… as the Honourable Minister, the efforts have resulted in the development of the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS), unveiled by President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, during the 2019 e-Nigeria International Conference, Exhibition and Awards, held on the November28th, 2019. The NDEPS effectively replaces the National IT Policy.”

How NITDA Is Supporting The Federal Government’s Digital Economy Vision

NITDA’s role is critical and the DG communicates this every now and then in a language unambiguous and a stance unwavering. He says: “You may wish to know that even prior to the re-designation of the Federal Ministry of Communications, to include Digital Economy, NITDA has achieved a lot in that regard, through the implementation of a roadmap for the development of the Nigerian IT sector which consists of 7 pillars that are in alignment with the 8 pillars of the Digital Economy Policy & Strategy and the Nigeria IT Policy. For instance, in promoting a digital Nigeria, NITDA from August 2019 to date has launched and is implementing the following regulatory instruments:

•             Nigeria e-Government Interoperability Framework (Ne-GIF);

•             Nigeria Cloud Computing Policy (NCCP);

•             Nigeria ICT Innovation and Entrepreneurship Vision (NIIEV);

•             Framework and Guidelines for ICT adoption in Tertiary Institutions;

•             Guidelines for Nigeria Content Development ICT as amended; and

•             Data Protection Implementation Framework.

“Furthermore, we have different IT project interventions that we have carried out across the country in the last 1 year  – 80 Digital Capacity Training Centres (DCTCs) with E-Learning facilities, 6 IT Hubs, 6 IT Community Centres, 4 IT Innovation & Incubation Parks, and 3 IT Capacity Training Centres – all with the aim of bridging the digital divide and providing access to the unserved and underserved population.”

NITDA’s Role In Attracting Venture Capitalists

Incidentally, this is an area Abdullahi speaks about with great passion.  He has taken to many webinars by industry stakeholders including the Nigerian Communications Commission(NCC) and ATCON, among others, to communicate the need to grow and strengthen the ecosystem, and venture capitalists are critical.

Hear the DG of NITDA: “Nigeria is indeed among the top three countries in Africa, attracting the largest investment from Venture Capitalists for its flourishing Technology Start-ups and Hubs. Interestingly, Nigeria occupies the first position with a total investment of US$747 Million, followed by Kenya with a total investment of US $564 Million and Egypt that attracted a total investment of US$211 million. In an effort to consolidate these efforts, we have a series of initiatives aimed at providing a conducive environment and support for the Start-up Ecosystem. These include:

•             The NITDA Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship Support Scheme, targeting startups hub owners and youth with talent and building their skills in high-demand skills;

•             Policies such as Tax Incentives for startups, incentives for investors and access to market for innovation adoption;

•             Establishment of Innovation and Research Fund to further catalyze the growth of startups;

•             Development of an Innovation Portal to monitor the activities of the ecosystem;

•             FinTech software, which is already exported;

•             The innovation fund established by Government will reduce risk and  attract FDI; and

•             Establishment of the Tech4COVID-19 Initiative to measure the impact of COVID-19 on the tech ecosystem and proffer solutions especially for startups. The committee has come up with a Strategic Plan to ensure we retain about 100,000 ICT Jobs and create an additional 30,000 in the Post COVID-19 Era. We have since initiated the implementation of these recommendations.”

Exporting Made-in-Nigeria Software

In the perspective of the DG of NITDA, Nigeria is potentially primed to lead the rest of Africa in the export of software and he has not spared any fora in recent times to communicate this. He says: “Nigeria has come a long way from being a net importer of software into a significant hub for the development of talent for software development in Africa. This is evident from the value of investments that come into Nigeria’s startup ecosystem due to the successes of mostly software-powered applications developed by incredibly smart Nigerians. This can be seen in the growth and capacities harnessed in the country’s technology hubs, mostly around Lagos and Abuja. Also, there are numerous software houses churning out software to support banking, commerce and government processes in Nigeria. This is a testament to the ingenuity of Nigerians developing software to almost sufficiently meet local needs. However, we must strive to become net exporters of software by developing our model to produce more software engineers and find suitable markets for these talents.

‘One way is to prepare to take advantage of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), which provides the opportunities for Africa to improve inter-Africa trade generally and trade in services particularly.  Nigerian Software will benefit immensely from an improved atmosphere in trade-in services. This is important, considering that we already have all the ingredients needed to succeed. There is also the need to continue to incentivize software developers through lower taxes, subsidized development of talent and to create a pipeline of jobs that can be offered locally. This will lead to the development of proprietary solutions that can be standardized and sold as services to other countries in Africa or the rest of the world for significant foreign exchange. Our initiative – the Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship Support Scheme is one of the initiatives we have towards talent development. Furthermore, we are in discussion with Microsoft Corporation on the Global Skilling Initiative (GSI). It is an initiative aimed at helping 25 million people worldwide who have lost their jobs due to the COVID-19 Pandemic to re-skill in in-demand technical and tech-enabled jobs in the digital economy.”

NITDA Working To Help Nigeria Recover From COVID-19

At the recent ATCON webinar (as in other virtual events)on COVID-19, the DG of NITDA, who was a special guest, spoke convincingly about the value proposition of his agency towards the containment of the pandemic.  “NITDA has launched several initiatives in order to ensure that technology continues to enable business continuity. You may have followed some of our initiatives like:

• Tech4COVID-19 Initiative – This initiative is set to measure the impact of COVID-19 on the tech ecosystem and proffer solutions especially for startups. The Committee we set-up has come up with a Strategic Plan to ensure we retain about 100,000 ICT Jobs and create an additional 30,000 in the Post COVID-19 Era.
• Virtual Startup Clinic –Startups where gathered, mostly young people to meet with mentors, successful entrepreneurs, investors, industry specialists, business consultants and hub operators with the goal of solving problems and challenges they were facing. We held two virtual startup clinics within a time frame of 1 month.
• Nigeria COVID-19 Innovation Challenge – An online innovation challenge was held to meet the challenges our society is facing as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. 5 startups with highly innovative ideas were selected for the final challenge and 3 of them were selected for further incubation. A support of ₦1 000,000₦750,000 and ₦500,000 were won by the 1st, 2nd and 3rd winners respectively.
• NITDA Technology Innovation & Entrepreneurship Support Scheme – This is a scheme to support startups and hubs across the country. With over 120 hubs in Nigeria, we are finalizing plans to ensure rapid intervention is provided for hubs and startups based on competence and carefully selected criteria.
• We are continuing with our SMART Agric Project, where we engage farmers and focus on using precision/smart farming to ensure significant improvement in crop yield, quality of farm produce, efficiency and productivity; increased profit margin, harvest forecast, sales of farm produce and eco-friendly agriculture practice. During this pandemic, we have engaged 130 farmers on this Project.
• Furthermore, we setup and launched the NITDA Academy – a platform for virtual learning where thousands of young Nigerians can have access to a wide range of educational courses and tools online. “

Footprints To Be Remembered For In The Nigeria IT Space

Shannon Adler  once said: “Carve your name on hearts, not tombstones. A legacy is etched into the minds of others and the stories they share about you.”  So, how does Abdullahi want to be remembered in the history books of the Nigerian cyber space?  He says: “Nigeria is where I call home and my vision for NITDA and the IT space is to leave behind a legacy; to leave an unprecedented record of achievements that will continue to support the growth and development of the ICT Sector, thereby contributing meaningfully to the lives of Nigerians.” The man is well on the path of achieving this goal.