The ministry of communication and digital economy top officials have again explained the reason the ministry set up the National ICT Data Bank.
Dr Nonye Nwachukwu, Director, planning research and statistics, who represented the minister, Dr Isa Pantami and Musa Istifanus, permanent secretary spoke at the “2019 ICT Data Stakeholders Workshop on Strengthening of ICT Data Bank” held in Owerri yesterday.
According to them the ministry in 2017 established the National ICT Data Bank to serve as a single window for disseminating and accessing ICT Data, Data Resources and Data assistance.
Nwachukwu said one of the key challenges in optimizing the use and operation of the Databank has been the issue of content, adding that although there are pockets of ICT Data in the country, these cannot be accessed easily.
According to her there is no existing framework for ensuring collaboration, standardization and sustainable synergy in the production and consolidation of ICT Data resources in the Databank.
The national data portal which is located at http://nictdatabank.commtech.gov.ng has been designed to provide stakeholders with multiple ICT sector-based information over a period of time. It is an open portal that will allow users access ICT datasets for free and proactively inform the public about ICT in Nigeria, she said.
Also speaking in the same vein Istifanus noted that effort to harness ICT as a key strategy for realizing national goals and objectives has been with mixed results arising from serious dearth of relevant data.
He said government established the Nigeria ICT Databank as a single window for consolidating and disseminating ICT data in Nigeria under the purview of the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy.
In order to strengthen the databank to achieve its purpose, Istifanus said the Ministry convened the Owerri workshop to agree on strategies and framework for harnessing existing and potential sources of ICT data towards continuous updating of relevant indicators and information.
“The workshop in Owerri is envisaged to facilitate the consolidation of existing ICT data resources and to sensitize participants to the need for synergy towards strengthening the databank”, he said.
It would also seek to validate an identified list of indicators in respect of which data will be sourced. The Indicators include ICT Infrastructure Data, Trade Data, Spending Data, ICT Local Content Data, e-Government Data and ICT Workforce/Skills Data
According to him, governments that fail to harness the potentials of the digital economy are severely handicapping their own economies by depriving them of the “new oil” of today’s knowledge economy.
Nigeria, he said, needs to embrace and harness its ICT data resources for good ICT governance, planning, monitoring and reporting in this knowledge era.
