Effective e-Strategies top agenda @ NITPPF’11

The Information Technology (Industry) Association of Nigeria (ITAN) has advanced plans for the 4th National Information Technology Public Private Forum (NITPPF), scheduled to hold in Benin, Edo State in June this year.

The event with theme Effective eStrategies: Path to a Digital Nigeria, is the premier event for IT public sector administrators, professionals, business leaders, high level public officials and opinion leaders from across the country assemble to share and build a vision of a connected knowledge base with access for all.

ITAN president, Dr. Jimson Olufuye said at the weekend that this is one of ITAN’’s contributions to the realisation by Nigeria of the goals of the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) which held between 2003 and 2005 as well as towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.

He said that ITAN is collaborating the World Information Technology and Services Alliance (WITSA), the Government of Edo State, National Office for Technology Assessment and Promotion (NOTAP), Association of Telecom Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), Nigeria Computer Society (NCS), Computer Professionals’’ (Registration Council) of Nigeria (CPN), Galaxy Backbone Plc, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), First Bank Plc, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Digital Bridge Institute (DBI), and the World Bank among others on NITPPF.

He also said that the three-day event has been scheduled to hold between June 22 and 24, 2011 in Benin City, Edo State.

ITAN, he said, plans to use two days, namely June 22 and 24 for quality awareness and improvement workshop for delegates from states IT Directorate and CEOs ITAN member companies in good standing.

“The objective of the NITPPF is to create a platform for synergy and collaboration among key Public and Private Sectors ICT administrators and leaders for accelerated application of ICTs for seamless Government to Citizen (G2C) and Citizen to Government (C2G) constitutional interactions; and for general economic growth and development within the states and across Nigeria as a whole,” he said.

Olufuye further said that the workshops, would be conducted by Messrs QAI Global, a global people-process-technology company specializing in building nations of ICT excellence viz organization capability; talent/ education; government; infrastructure; policy, among others.

Olufuye, who also is the Vice Chairman, WITSA for Africa noted that over 70 per cent, that is 28 of the 36 states in Nigeria are grappling with decreasing revenue from Federal allocation and at the same time increasing cost of overheads, wages and emoluments with little or no fund for capital projects that could benefit the people.

The states, he said are losing important revenue due to loopholes and inefficient collection of internal revenue, adding that using Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to make government work better and smarter is the necessary pathway to prosperity and to a digital Nigeria.

“As no such forum exists to fill the gaps except NITPPF, it is therefore imperative to fast-tracking ICT application for e-Government across the 36 states of Nigeria, plus Abuja, through ample sharing of best practices,” he asserted.

Equally speaking, the Executive Director, Directorate of ICT, Edo State, Mrs. Olayemi Keri, expressed excitement on the opportunity for the state to host ITAN’s 4th edition of the National IT Public Private Forum.

“We believe it would add value to our IT developmental goals in Edo State” said Mrs. Olayemi Keri, Executive Director, Directorate of ICT, Edo State” she said.

ITAN further said, the opening ceremony has been scheduled for the second day, Thursday June 23, 2011 to be followed by panel discussions on eGovernment and Quality of Service, eLearning and Broadband Imperatives, in addition to issues on Internet for Development (I4D).

Remmy Nweke:
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