By John Ikani
President Muhammadu Buhari has issued a directive that government officials must refrain from using private emails for official purposes.
He also ordered all federal public institutions to migrate their websites to the relevant government domains.
A statement issued by the President’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, revealed that the president gave the directives during the launch of the National Policy on Nigeria Government Second-Level Domains at the State House, Abuja.
According to the statement, Buhari welcomed the recent deployment of Starlink services by SpaceX in Nigeria, which has made the country the first African nation to have 100% broadband penetration.
The President noted that Nigeria’s digital economy has been the most booming sector in the diversification of the economy, saving the federal government over N45.7bn in IT project clearance.
He praised the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof. Isa Pantami, for being committed to implementing the digital economy mandate and taking steps to institutionalize the process by developing relevant policies and strategies.
Buhari went on to note that his administration has enacted 21 new national policies and strategies since 2019, and the two new policies launched on Thursday will further accelerate the development of the nation’s digital economy sector.
The President explained that in the last three and a half years, the development of policies, programs, and projects in the digital economy sector has intensified with impressive results.
According to him, the contribution of the ICT sector to the Gross Domestic Product in the second quarter of 2022 was 18.44%, compared to the contribution of the oil sector, which was 6.33%.
On his part, Minister Pantami stated that the two policies being launched were the outcome of compliance with the President’s directive to come up with a National Policy approved by the Federal Executive Council.
“The policies are meant to consolidate the gains achieved so far in the digital ecosystem, he said.”
