NITDA, World Bank to sign pact on ICT capacity building

The National Informa­tion Technology Devel­opment Agency (NITDA) and a World Bank subsidiary, Growth and Employment in States (GEMS), have concluded talks to collaborate and come up with a draft memorandum of under­standing for the development of ICT skills among Nigerians.
A statement according to its Head, Corporate Affairs, Mrs. Hadiza Umar said the draft MoU will include the rights and obliga­tions of the parties for the purpose of implementing GEMS Program that will cover areas such as soft­ware testing, professional certifi­cation programs, software apps, e-commerce mobile apps, busi­ness process outsourcing among others.

The statement said that the act­ing Director General of the agen­cy, Dr. Vincent Olatunji informed the World Bank team that the present Administration has the political will to drive the success­ful implementation of the pro­gram to fruition.
According to Olatunji, “Political will of this administration is work­ing for us in the ICT sector in the country because the government is looking for means of diversify­ing the economy and ICT sector has been identified as one of the area that we can tap into.”
“There is assurance from the government on this. The minis­ter with supervision from the of­fice of the Vice president is com­mitted to ensure that ICT drives the country’s economy”, Dr. Ola­tunji assured.
The lead delegate of the World Bank team, Mr. Andrew Gartside stressed on the need to sustain the programs due to the dynamic na­ture of ICT especially the Software sub sector and the need for both parties to ensure the sustainabili­ty of these programs.