Why I Re-Appointed Kashifu Inuwa as NITDA Director General – Buhari

The outstanding successes recorded by the National Information Technology Development Agency, NITDA, in recent years, is why Mallam Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi was re-appointed as the Agency’s Director General, President Muhammadu Buhari, has said.

The president made the disclosure in his address at the launching and unveiling of the ‘National Policy on the Nigerian Government Second-Level Domains and National Data Strategy,” in Aso Rock Presidential Villa Abuja.

According to Buhari, from October 2022, some parastatals under the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, including NITDA, were evaluated.

“The performance evaluation report submitted to me shows outstanding performance of NITDA, in particular, on different areas of the mandate of the agency.

“Based on the impressive performance of NITDA, I approved the re-appointment of Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi as the Director-General for the second term in office, from 2023 to 2027,” he said.

The president who said his administration is committed to the development and diversification of the country’s economy, noted that they have intensified the development of policies, design of programmes and implementation of projects in the digital economy sector, in the last three and a half years.

His words: “For example, we have succeeded in diversifying our economy to a large extent and this is obvious when we consider the contribution of the ICT sector to our gross domestic product in the second quarter of 2022, which stood at 18.44% compared to the contribution of the oil sector to the GDP, which was 6.33% in the same period.

“…In December 2022, I approved for the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Professor Isa Ali Ibrahim (Pantami), to travel to the United States of America to engage SpaceX to complete the process of deployment of their StarLink services in Nigeria.

“We are glad that StarLink services are already deployed in Nigeria. This has made Nigeria the first and only African country to have this link. With the deployment of StarLink services in Nigeria, we have 100 percent broadband penetration in Nigeria. This is a major milestone on our digital economy journey.

“We are very proud of the great strides of our digital economy sector and the impact it has had on the different sectors of our economy and I commend the Honourable Minister for being committed to the implementation of the digital economy mandate.

“…Since October 2019, we have developed a total of 21 new national policies and strategies and I will be unveiling 2 of these today, namely the National Policy on the Nigerian Government Second-Level Domains and the National Data Strategy.

“This number of policies is unprecedented and quite commendable. All the policies and strategies are national instruments to support Nigeria’s digital economy at the national and sub-national levels. The national policies have led to significant development across all sectors of our economy.

“…It is our collective responsibility to give our country a good name in cyberspace and the National Policy on Nigerian Government Second-Level Domains is a welcome step in this direction. The importance of digital identity has been actively promoted by our administration as this is a key requirement for the sustainable and secure development of our digital economy.

“I hereby direct that government officials should refrain from using private emails for official purposes and all FPIs must migrate their websites to the relevant government domains. I hereby direct the Honourable Minister to ensure that all relevant institutions and stakeholders ensure the faithful implementation of the National Policy on the Nigerian Government Second-Level Domains and the National Data Strategy”.

Earlier, Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Professor Isa Ali Pantami said that the two policies being launched were outcomes of compliance with the President’s directive to come up with a National Policy that was earlier approved by the Federal Executive Council, noting that the policies were targeted at consolidating on the gains achieved so far in the digital ecosystem.

Enumerating the benefits to be derived from implementing the policies, the Minister said the Ministry relied on relevant provisions of the Constitution of Nigeria 1999 as amended, and the NITDA Act 2007, with the belief that they would go a long way in consolidating the achievements in the digital economy sector.

On the National Data Policy, Prof. Pantami reiterated the indispensability of data in national life, emphasizing that data was critical and could be leveraged on for the development of other sectors of the economy.

Earlier, Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof. Isa Pantami said that the two policies being inaugurated were outcomes of compliance with the President’s directive to come up with a National Policy that was earlier approved by the Federal Executive Council.

He noted that the policies were targeted at consolidating on the gains achieved so far in the digital ecosystem.

The minister enumerated the benefits to be derived from implementing the policies.

He said the ministry relied on relevant provisions of the Constitution of Nigeria 1999 as amended, and the NITDA Act 2007, with the belief that they would go a long way in consolidating the achievements in the digital economy sector.

On the National Data Policy, Mr Pantami reiterated the indispensability of data in national life, emphasizing that data was critical and could be leveraged on for the development of other sectors of the economy.