Director-General, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Mallam Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, has said the web is the backbone of the digital economy as it serves as a pathway to opportunities in the digital economy through connectivity, data, and digital platforms.
Represented by Dr Muhammad Aminu Lawal, Special Assistant on Digital Transformation to the Director-General, Abdullahi said this while delivering a keynote address at the World Wide Web Day, a hybrid event organised by the Centre for Cyber Awareness Development (CECAD) with the theme “The World Wide Web: Creating Opportunities for the New African Digital Economy.”
He said internet connectivity ensures that value is created and captured and also ensures global access to products and services 24/7 in the digital economy, adding that through the Web, digital data continues to drive the evolution of the digital economy.
“The Web provides access to massive volumes of data used for analysis on virtually every aspect of our lives,” said the DG.
Abdullahi noted that another significant contribution of the Web in driving the digital economy is the development of digital platforms. “Many businesses, social and personal activities are happening on various digital platforms; these leave tons of digital footprints that provide huge amounts of data for analytics”, he said.
He opined that by leveraging on the world wide web, many digital economy potentials lie ahead for Africa; these potentials will increase growth and productivity as exploiting the Web will reduce the cost of production and distribution of goods and services; improve management efficiency and communication with stakeholders; increase competition and broaden markets; provide options for customers and improves marketing and pricing.
The NITDA boss emphasised that the Agency through its strategies has come up with numerous regulations and initiatives to ensure that opportunities are created and utilised to achieve a digital economy.
Some of these initiatives, according to the DG are: Encouraging free domain registration for public institutions through Nigerian Internet Registration Association (NIRA); Facilitating Digital Literacy Training and Awareness, Digital Content Creation and Indigenous Language Translation; and Effective Digitisation of Government Services (e-Government) as well as other e-services.
Others are the Deployment of IT intervention projects that facilitate Digital Literacy and Skills development; Development of Nigeria Government Enterprise Architecture (NGEA) and Nigerian e-Govt Interoperability framework (Ne-GIF); Funding capacity building & Innovation initiatives to facilitate digital jobs creation; and the Establishment of National Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (NCAIR).
Earlier in his opening remarks, Dr. Bayero Agabi, convener of the event and Executive Director (CECAD), said the World Wide Web Day is a global celebration dedicated to web browsing, online activities that bring a wealth of knowledge to people’s fingertips.
“It is a chance to celebrate the way the internet created an environment for collaboration and business growth while also taking a deeper look into its evolution the past years,” he said, adding that the purpose of the event was to come up with policies that will help create a sane and secure digital society.
Among the dignitaries in attendance at the event were the Director-General of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), Engr. Aliyu Aziz; Managing Director, Galaxy Backbone Limited (GBB), Prof. Muhammed Bello Abubakar; President, Nigeria Computer Society (NCS), Prof. Adesina Sodiya; President of ATCON, Engr. Ikechukwu Nnamani; Former President of NCS, Alhaji Ladi Oguneye, Chief Executives of IT companies and other relevant stakeholders.
