ITAN, WITSA to examine public-private partnership

The Information Technology (Industry) Association of Nigeria (ITAN) and World Information Technology and Services Alliance (WITSA), have advanced plans to host the third edition of its public-private partnership forum in Abuja.

The Secretary-General of WITSA, Dr. James Poisant is expected to give a keynote presentation at a stakeholders’ Town-hall meeting, scheduled for Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja, next month.

Disclosing this, the chief operating officer, ITAN and WITSA Administrative Secretary for Nigeria, Mr. Oluwole Owolabi, said that the forum is a prime event for IT administrators, professionals, business leaders, high level public officers and opinion leaders from all states of the nation to come together to share and build a vision of a connected knowledge base with opportunities for all.

He pointed out that as Internet and technological advances continue to reshape power, redistribute national resources, transform government, education, culture and the way we work in government and industry, competition and economic pressures create quicker and more efficient ways to do business, the reality of increased and quality information for economic and national survivability remains a fundamental concern to all nations of the world, particularly in Nigeria.

The event tagged the Information Technology Public Private Forum (ITPPF), he noted, was inaugurated by the WITSA Chairman, Dato’ Dan E. Khoo on April 22, 2009 at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja, the second edition of the forum was hosted in Kano by the State Governor, Ibrahim Shekarau on September 29, 2009.

The theme of the 2nd edition, he recalled was “Plucking the Low Hanging Fruitsm” while the theme of the 3rd edition is “Meeting the Vision 20 2020 Challenge.”

According to him, the sub-themes are Broadband for economic cheetahpolevault, Imperative for resilient Information Infrastructure, cybersecurity legislation, multi-literalism for development, relentless innovation, sectoral data research, integrity and dependencies, renewable and green energy, Engendering the culture of e-learning.

Some objectives of the ITPPF are, he listed to include connecting government ICT initiatives with industry to creating jobs and engendering accelerated development, promoting industry cooperation and strengthening ICT industries through the sharing of knowledge, experience, and critical information in Nigeria, advocating public policies that advance the industry’s growth and development and facilitating trade and investment in ICT products and services, among others.

In addition, he said that Messrs QAI Global, who recently entered deal with ITAN as strategic partner, would facilitate industry capacity building initiatives at ITPPF-2010, stressing that QAI presentation would centre on Building IT-BPO Industry Capacity and Competitiveness.


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