The leadership of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has claimed that it has in the last one year through advisory role, saved over N6bn for the Federal Government.
Though it failed to substantiate how it advised the MDAs and or, how the advises were adhered to within the stated one year period, the agency also noted that Nigeria spends about $2bn (N611.5bn at the official exchange rate of N305.75 to a dollar) on Information Technology projects across the country annually.
The revelations were made by the Director-General, Dr Isa Pantami, at a stakeholders’ workshop on Information Technology Projects Clearance Guidelines and Portal in Abuja.
According to him, some of the IT projects in the country failed due to poor conceptualisation and planning.
Dr. Pantami, represented by his Technical Assistant, Kashifu Inuwa, averred that through the projects’ clearance initiated by the agency, the ills identified by his organisation in government IT projects are being corrected.
While stressing that the projects’ clearance would further entrench IT products manufacturing and services in Nigeria, NITDA boss stressed that “Our goal at the NITDA is to use the IT projects’ clearance process to correct the ills identified above and to further entrench IT product manufacturing and services in Nigeria. I am delighted to report to this gathering that our collaboration with relevant government organisations on this initiative is already yielding positive fruits.
“For instance, the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation now issues audit queries to MDAs, which refuse to get NITDA clearance before embarking on their IT projects, while the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission is also partnering us to investigate government agencies that might be breaching the NITDA guidelines and policies.”
He disclosed that NITDA has intensified collaboration with other MDAs, saying “We also have a firm understanding with the Bureau for Public Procurement such that the NITDA clearance is now a prerequisite for the issuance of certificates of no objection on IT projects. The agency has within the last one year saved the Federal Government over N6bn on IT projects. This is apart from the various advisory and support services given to the MDAs without charge.
“The IT clearance portal is a state-of-the-art website with intelligent analytics capability that will make the clearance process more evidence-based and transparent,” NITDA GD, Dr. Pantami stated.
