By Emmanuel Nduka
Nigeria’s National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has turned to Independence Digital, a Russian software company, for partnership to boost local capacity of content production.
The partnership according to the agency, is part of efforts to implement the promotion of local content, which was one of the pillars of its Strategic Roadmap and Action Plan (SRAP 2021-2024).
Director-General of NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa, received a delegation of the Russian group, after which the resolution was reached.
The DG who was represented by Usman Gambo, Director of IT Infrastructure Solutions in the agency, explained that the Nigerian Government had in 2019 established the Nigerian Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS), a 10-year policy plan, to transform the country digitally.
He said the establishment of the NDEPS included software development, adding that local content development and promotion remained the agency’s primary focus, necessitating collaboration.
“As Russia doesn’t use solutions developed outside Russia, we in Nigeria would love to collaborate with you so that you can help us achieve this,” NITDA stated.
Inuwa further assured the company of the agency’s willingness to share other open documents such as the Cloud Computing Policy and the National Broadband Implementation Plan with SRAP as the primary focus.
He added that regulation was not to stifle innovations. Rather, it was necessary to co-create and work with developers who would understand the needs and create regulatory instruments and frameworks that would support existing regulations.
A representative of Independence Digital, Paul Maximeak stated that the organisation, a certified partner of most major Russian software developers such as the Kaspersky Lab, eXpress, Infowatch, Security Code, and others, was excited to collaborate with NITDA on software development.
(NAN)
