Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Dr Peter Jack, has said that Nigeria’s active internet users currently stands at 48 million..
In a statement issued in Abuja on Tuesday by NITDA’s Head of Public Affairs, Mrs Hadiza Umar, she stated that Jack made the assertion in a speech he delivered at a global media event in Dubai.
The meeting was preparatory to the Global Information Technology Exhibition (GITEX) Week 2014
According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Jack was quoted as saying, “In Nigeria, with over 48 million regular Internet users, various activities are being carried out online. We are currently measuring the impact of the plan and implementation level in preparation for review next year.
“ICT contributes over eight per cent to the Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product and is now growing at seven per cent annually. Our target is to grow the ICT industry to a point where it will contribute up to 15 per cent to the GDP within the next three to five years.”
“Specifically, we have embarked on some smart initiatives, which include the National e-Government Master Plan and Strategy. The others are the Tinapa Knowledge City, with a full-fledged IT park, and Software Development Centre; and we also plan to site a reverse engineering centre in the facility.”
The director-general however explained that NITDA had developed a national Information and Communication Technology Strategic Plan with a timeline of 2010-2015.
According to him, the implementation of the plan is on-going in sectors such as education, agriculture, health, governance and the judiciary.
He said, other areas include human capital development and national security, which have propelled the level of development in the ICT sector
“The Lekki Smart City Initiative, Lagos Innovation City and the Lekki Software Development Academy, which is planned to house a software incubator and accelerator, are among the initiatives.
“There is the iDEA Hub, which is our pilot programme in software incubation and innovation, and the Software Development and Testing Centre” he said.
Dr Jack stated that the Abuja Technology Village which was already housing the “inspire technology incubation hub”, will also house part of NITDA’s innovation facility in Abuja.
