Minister of Communication, Adebayo Shittu, has said Nigerians should be a little more patient, as the blueprint for the ICT industry will be revealed by mid-January 2016.
He said this at a visit to the Omatek Computers factory in Lagos yesterday, where he addressed select ICT correspondents.
Responding to questions on what his plans for the ICT industry were and what he would be bringing to the table to make a positive change in this sector, Shittu said: “By the middle of January 2016, I will be addressing the country on the blueprint for ICT development. We have been having a lot of input from stakeholders across the country and from Nigerians in Diaspora so we have set up a retreat to take place somewhere in Kaduna State in January.
“Everything will be unfolded then. So, please be patient with us for another three weeks when you will have the entire perspective. But certainly, you should be rest assured that you have a new minister who is passionate about the economy and wants things done the way they should be done with a view to deliver optimally.”
Commending the efforts of Precious Seriki, managing director/founder of Omatek Computers, in assembling and making world-class standard computers locally, Shittu said he would do everything within his power to make sure local content continued to grow by getting the relevant support and encouragement of the government.
“I am very impressed and I believe she deserves the support of government and I have committed myself to the fact that whatever I can do on behalf of the Federal Government through my ministry, I will certainly do it,” he said.
It should be recalled that in 2012, the Federal Government mandated all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to purchase computers by indigenous companies such as Zinox Technologies, Brian Technologies, Omatek Computers, Beta Computers and Veda Computers, among others, in keeping with its resolve to also promote local content in the ICT industry.
There was also a deadline that was placed on that directive, but nothing was done. Over the years, we have seen series of national projects being carried out with HP, Dell and other foreign brands of computers being deployed.
Precious Seriki mentioned some of the problems with the directive made by previous administrations, stating that the main reason why it did not work, as it should have was because when the policy was made, key stakeholders were not involved.
“It is not good enough for policies to be formulated and nobody cares about it. There are things that need to be done. For example, we say that we need to start producing cars locally; we have to set up guidelines. There should be people to enforce that all of us meet quality, there should be people to ensure that things are done in the right perspective.
“We have now defined clearly what the role of the ministry should be, what the role of NITDA should be and moving forward, we hope not to encounter such issues anymore,” she said.
