Dr. DanAzumi Mohammed Ibrahim, Director General, National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP) has revealed that the local vendor programme introduced by the NOTAP, is assisting the nation in building local capacity for software development.
Ibrahim disclosed this when he led NOTAP management delegation to the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) office in Abuja, adding that as part of its mandate, NOTAP registers technology transfer agreements coming into the country and for any software agreement, the agency insists that its deployment must involve a local vendor who will get 40 percent of the yearly service or maintenance fee.
According to him, this arrangement has economically empowered Nigerians and their capacity in software development enhanced.
He cited an IT firm, Computer Warehouse Ltd.as a beneficiary of this programme, and lamented the present situation whereby most of the nation’s operations rely largely on foreign software with the attendant huge capital flight.
He called for closer partnership with NITDA to ensure that local software are identified through exhibitions, developed, tested and deployed for the nations operations to reduce the huge dependence on imported ones.
In his remark, Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim (Pantami), director general of NITDA said the high deployment of foreign software in the nation’s economy has been worrisome to the agency due to the huge foreign exchange involved.
He revealed that one of the interventions by NITDA made in this direction was the establishment of the Office for Nigerian Content in Information Communications Technology (ONC) which focuses on promotion, development and monitoring local content in Information Communications Technology (ICT) deployment in the country.
NITDA management, he said is in the process of repositioning the office and its operations for better service delivery since the agency is saddled with the responsibility of regulation, clearing and intervention on all ICT matters in Nigeria, stressing that the agency is willing to collaborate with NOTAP to ensure that Nigeria reduces it huge dependence on imported goods and services for the growth of the economy.
Meanwhile, a standing committee made up of senior officials of both agencies will be set up to draw guidelines for the collaboration aimed at strengthening their mandates and operations towards the development of the nation’s economy.
Leave a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.