The stakeholders’ interaction over the draft national policy on Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) being put together by the Ministry of Communications Technology, is billed to hold in March.
Minister of Communications Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson
made this disclosure in Lagos, while briefing newsmen after a keynote address
to the week-long ICT empowerment for some 500 Nigerian youths being organized
by the Jim Ovia Foundation.
This is coming after the comment duration for the draft ICT
policy has been extended till last Monday, January 30, this year.
The stakeholders’ interaction, she said, would ensure that
relevant organizations and agencies agree on what should be and discard what
should not be.
She also disclosed that CommTech the interaction would be
followed by the ICT master plans.
The master plans, she said, would be a lot broader and
everything about the ICT master plans strategies is expected be concluded
between June and July this year.
The first main objective is the creation of innovation
incubation centers; which she hinted would definitely need the support of the
private sector.
“We think that the private sector would take this up and
run,” she declared.
Additionally, she said that there would be funding
facilities for industry players, even as her ministry expressed the hope that
the organized private sector would buy into this by putting some fund down to
support the incubation centres.
Mrs. Johnson expressed optimism that there would be about
four incubation centres before the end of this year.
On the convergence of ICT, she said that her Ministry is
working on ensuring that there are true convergence regulators for all the
sub-sectors of the industry.
As for the NIPOST, Mrs. Johnson, who was accompanied by the
Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mrs. Efem Nkanga, noted that with over
1,000 postal offices across the country, thus stands a greater chance of
bridging the gap on cashless economy.
NIPOST, she said, would play a very crucial role for this
ministry by bridging digital divide and bring about digital inclusion because
it has over 1000 post offices and other agency outlets.
Remmy Nweke
ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D
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