DR PANTAMI GETS AN AWARD IN DUBAI!

DR PANTAMI GETS AN AWARD IN DUBAI!
                By:
        Nurudeen Dauda
   October 18, 2018.
nurudeendauda24@gmail.com
nurudeendauda24@yahoo.com
nurudeendauda.blogspot.com

Permit me to Congratulate Dr.(Sheikh) Pantami on his Well Deserved Award By Dubai International Trade Center. Dr.Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, the Director General of NITDA, has been awarded by Dubai World Trade Centre, the organisers of #GITEX2018, in recognition of NITDA's efforts in fostering ICT Innovation & Entrepreneurship At the Africa Investment Forum held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

I have carefully followed NITDA under his leadership to which I am certainly not disappointed. Dr. Pantami is really leading a silent revolution in NITDA. Continue your good work sir. 

Dr. Pantami once said : "...We have seen an instance where a project which should be N20 million was brought to us as a N200 million project. When we invited them to come and defend the proposal we discovered that the project, ordinary shouldn’t be more than N20m" (Dr Pantami).

I am deeply convinced that, the use of technology will go along way in fighting corrupt better as well as improving modern public administration. But, however, any observer of the Nigerian Budget would have observed that over the years one item that keeps appearing on every year's budget of the Ministries,Departments and Agencies(MDAs)  is the ICT item as if it is not a durable item.That made many analysts to conclude that ICT is a "conduit pipe" use by MDAs in siphoning public funds.

National Information Technology Development Agency ( NITDA ) was created in April 2001 to implement the Nigerian Information Technology Policy and co-ordinate general IT development in the country.It is the prime Agency for e-government implementation, Internet governance and general IT development in Nigeria.

Dr. Pantami once said : "...there is a law that has made it an offence for you to buy an ICT product or service, which is available here in Nigerian, outside the country. It is an offence to do that. But most MDAs claimed that they were not aware of this, and that is why we are giving it publicity now. I have told the Bureau of Public Procurement that they shouldn’t allow any MDA without NITDA’s clearance to purchase any IT product or service. I also went to the Budget Office to tell them that they shouldn’t approve any IT budget of any agency without our input; without seeking clearance from here. People don’t know that the federal government had asked MDAs to consult NITDA and seek clearance before embarking on any IT project" (Dr Pantami).

"...Whoever doesn’t follow the directive, a legal action will be taken against him. I said it and I mean it because for you to breach our Act is a punishable offence which could be imprisonment of up to one or three years, as the case maybe. So any CEO that thinks he can use IT to siphon government money by not seeking clearance from NITDA for his IT project should go ahead and do that but if the information reaches us, he will pay"

"...They can’t claim ignorance again; I personally signed the letters we sent to all of them informing them of this, in addition we also put out adverts in newspapers. In all the letters sent we received acknowledgement copies, so this will be used as evidence against them in case they breach it" (Dr Pantami).

"If the trend of importation of ICT products is not stopped or at least reduced to a barest minimum, Nigeria would be spending $143.8bn on ICT imports in 2019,...So far the country loses approximately N1.52trillion ($3.8bn) every year through importation of Information and Communications Technology products, services and software" ( Dr Pantami).

‘’We want to solve the problems bordering on local content in the ICT sector in the country. We are not happy at all that Nigeria loses so much on importation of IT products and services as well as software. Approximately, $2.8billion are being lost annually from importation of ICT goods and services, including $1bn spent also annually on importation of software into the country. This is huge; if we don’t act quickly to reduce this, the survival of our local industry will be at risk’’(Dr Pantami).

‘’ I realised this is the best way to fight corruption in Nigeria. Most of the MDAs insert IT projects in their budgets not because they need it, but because it is the easiest way to circumvent the questions of Senators or House of Representatives at the National Assembly’’(Dr Pantami).

Continue with your good work sir!

May God bless Nigeria!

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