The National Information Technology Development Agency, NITDA, and Microsoft company on Thursday signed a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, to strengthen Information Communication Technology, ICT, innovation and adoption.
This was made known in a statement signed by Isa Pantami, the Director-General NITDA and Akin Banuso, the General Manager, Microsoft in Abuja.
Mr Pantami said that the partnership would enable the organisations develop cloud policies, data protection, privacy laws and data classification frameworks.
“We are delighted to collaborate with Microsoft as regulators. Our mandate is to create the right policies that foster innovation and help build a robust digital economy.
“Nigeria is a forward thinking economy and one which is ready to compete in the fourth industrial revolution by having policies which drive growth and encourage investments.
“This is a positive move towards digitalisation of government processes and provides a tremendous opportunity to scale up citizen’s access to services and concurrently improve the quality of services,” Mr Pantami said.
According to him, government prioritises the fight against corruption, security; private sector led economic growth, job creation, youth training and skills development.
He said technology would be at the heart of driving and building a digital economy, which necessitated placing premium on security, job creation, among other sectors.
He said that NITDA and Microsoft would set up a joint working group for the collaboration to function effectively.
On his part, Mr Banuso said the organisation was delighted to work with NITDA to drive the country’s economy and foster regulations in the sector to meet world best practices.
“Microsoft is committed to providing technology you can trust. We have been actively involved in discussions with governments around the world for digital transformation.
“We are honoured to be able to work with the Nigerian government on this framework.
“This collaboration aims to foster detailed discussions of recent regulatory and policy development, including global best practices.
“It will also enable us to create cloud regulatory frameworks appropriate for driving innovation and improving how the public sector operates and delivers citizen services,” Mr Banuso said.
NAN
