Nigeria to spend $143bn on ICT imports in 2019- DG NITDA

Except the trend of importation of ICT products is stopped or at least reduced to a barest, Nigeria would be spending a whopping $143.8bn on Information Communications Technology (ICT) imports in 2019.

Dr Isa Ali Ibrahim, director general, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) made this assertion in Abuja, recently while speaking to the press, adding that the importation of almost every ICT software and hardware was exterminating the local IT industry and draining the country of foreign exchange.

He revealed that the country loses nearly N1.52trillion, (about $3.8billion) every year via the importation of ICT products, services and software.

The NITDA DG said: “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.’’

The best ways to prevent or reduce corruption in the civil service, according to him is by looking thoroughly into the IT projects being embarked upon by Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).

“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,” he revealed.

He also disclosed that some civil servants who designed budgets for MDAs used IT projects as a conduit to siphon government money, which NITDA had detected and was set to put an end to it.

‘’NITDA is the clearing house for all IT projects. The Federal Government has mandated all MDAs to seek for NITDA clearance before embarking on any IT project. We have recorded some successes in the enforcement of this policy and we need to maintain the tempo,’’ Dr Ibrahim affirmed.

NITDA, he said was already filtering the ICT products and monitoring all software being imported into the country in a bid to reduce capital flight and build local industry.

He noted that the agency’s Act stipulates that any CEO of any MDAs who deployed any IT project without NITDA clearance is liable to one or three years imprisonment.