Pantami inaugurates NDEPS Review Committee, NITDA Boss makes List

The Honourable Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isah Ali Ibrahim (Pantami) FNCS, FBCS, FIIM has inaugurated Expert Review Committee Member of the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS) today at Bolton White Hotel Abuja to review the draft of the document already unveiled by President Muhammadu Buhari GCFR on 28th November 2019.

The NDEPS is a draft document aimed at strategizing on how to digitize the economy of the country. The document consists of 8 pillars namely: Developmental Regulation, Digital Literacy & Skill, Solid Infrastructure, Service Infrastructure, Digital Services Development and Promotion, Soft Infrastructure, Digital Society and Emerging Technologies and Indigenous Content Development.

Pantami asserted that the committee is to review the draft document, provide an effective implementation roadmap and also come up with a responsibility matrix. According to the minister, the document would help the nation to key into strategy global update.

“We have been working on the document simultaneously. There are things that are generally strategic. There are many pillars we have started implementing since. The draft of the policy was not produced in Nigeria.

“We engaged some of our friends and stakeholders to develop this policy. When we engage people from outside the country and they may not be able to know some of our challenges and peculiar data of the industry or bureaucracy of the government.

“The value is expected to grow significantly in the coming years. The world economic forum has predicted that over 60 percent of global GDP will be digitised by 2022. In the next decade, digital platforms will be used to create close to 70 percent of new value. It is because of this that all the eight pillars we came up, we did so on our own personal work.”

He called on the committee to look into the pillars critically, work on it and see how it can be improved. He added that all the parastatal agencies under the ministry had a role to play on the national policy.

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The Director General of National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Mr kashifu Inuwa, CCIE in his remarks stated that the Minister has already created an enabling environment noting that what is needed now is the committee’s contributions in order to drive the policy of Digital Economy for Digital Nigeria.

DG NITDA, is one of the 30 members committee for the expert review of NDEPS.