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A Case for the Ministry of Information Technology - An Agenda for the next Administration By Jimson Olufuye April 25, 2007
May I use this opportunity to on behalf of the vast members of the Information Technology (Industry) Association of Nigeria (ITAN) congratulate our President-Elect on the epoch trust and mandate given to him by a vast majority of Nigerians. In ITAN we wish you a very successful tenure.
Just as I wrote in 2000 on the need for an Information Technology Commission and eventually an Agency (NITDA) was created, I now write yet again for the Ministry of Information Technology to be created so that we can move our development to the next level if the vision of the President-Elect for Nigeria to be in the top 20 of developed economies of the world by the year 2020 is to be realised.
It is now apparent from the experience of many developing countries that the critical window available for our country to develop and catch up with the rest of the developed world is in Information Technology (ie the composite stream of applied Technologies – Information and Communications Technologies). This is because other approaches to development either amount to re-inventing the wheel or adapting it on the one hand or buying technology on the other hand. Either way, the gap widens faster than our attempts to catch up.
However, Information Technology is driven far more by knowledge than by physical technology. Software development is a good example. Software is powered by intellectual capital. And Nigeria is not known to be in short supply of intellectual capital. Indeed, on the average, Nigerians have the highest IQ on the continent. Our human resources (as most of us do know) are comparable to the best any where in the world.
Besides the need to catch up with the developed world, national investments in Information Technology would ensure that the country is not totally cut off from the world economy, especially due to the wind of globalization. The risk is indeed grave! It was this realization I believe led to the establishment of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) six years ago.
The establishment of NITDA is salutary. It accords with the practice of creating an institution to help the nation to give due attention to a critical sector in our national life. That is often the historical antecedent of many an Agency of Government. Thus, there are intervention Agencies in petroleum development (never mind the ‘slush’ funds scandal). There are also intervention Agencies in the education and finance sectors, among others.
Indeed Government has always set up intervention Agencies in all critical sectors of the economy. Some of those Agencies eventually metamorphosed into fully-fledged Ministries when the need arises. The Federal Ministries of Women Affairs and Science and Technology had Commissions as their precursors.
The establishment of NITDA, as a development Agency for Information Technology, was auspicious and expedient. However, the all-pervading, cross-cutting nature of Information Technology and its inestimable relevance to a knowledge-based economy are such that no one Agency, no matter how well it performs, with limited organizational and financial resources, can develop Information Technology fast enough to meet the aspirations of the country as a 21st century economy and regional outsourcing hub for IT Enabled Services (ITES) and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO). Progress will be made, certainly, but such progress would be inadequate to enable the country to catch up with developed economies by the year 2020.
Therefore, after six years of experimentation with an Information Technology Agency, there is now a compelling need to re-think and redesign the structure of the country’s investment in Information Technology. The thinking of ITAN, and a view that has also been hitherto canvassed by other Information Technology experts, is that an outright Federal Ministry of Information Technology will best serve our country at this stage of her development.
However, NITDA should remain as the nucleus of such a Federal Ministry for the simple but sensible reason that the Ministry should not start on a clean slate. Rather, the human resources and other that might be injected; and infrastructure of NITDA should give the Ministry a head start.
Similarly, some of the current departments and programs in NITDA could metamorphose into full Agencies within the Ministry as follows: 1. The Software Research Department could become the National Software Development Commission. 2. The National Information Technology Development Fund (NITDEF) could assume the full status of an intervention parastatal in the mold of the Education Trust Fund or Petroleum Technology Development Fund. 3. The National Outsourcing Programme under NITDA could actually become a full Outsourcing Commission like the NEPC and NIPC.
Gladly, the National Information Technology Policy (co-authored by ITAN) which NITDA was established to implement is due for review. The review should be undertaken with the inauguration of the incoming Administration -though NITDA had earlier informed stakeholders of its intention to initiate the review. The review of the Policy would be one opportunity to make detailed provisions for a Federal (and indeed States) Ministry of Information Technology with mandate specifications for the recommended parastatals.
On a final note, it is important to underscore the point that the nation has nothing to lose, but everything to gain, by adopting the option of a Federal Ministry for Information Technology. The times dictate it; our national aspirations demand it, and our economy desires it!
Jimson Olufuye is the President of ITAN. He can be reached on president@itan.org.ng. |
The driving force of the information age is the composite stream of applied technologies (Information and Communications) known as Information Technology (IT). It is the engine of modern civilization. The higher a nation or people are in IT pedestal, the more developed the people are in terms of wealth, living standard, know-how and dominance of the world within and without. |
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