The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has been conferred with the prestigious National Productivity Order of Merit (NPOM) award in recognition of the agency’s high productivity, hard work and excellence in service delivery.
The award ceremony was chaired by the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, at the Banquet Hall, State House, Abuja.
According to the award committee, NITDA’s recommendation and subsequent nomination followed a rigorous selection process and the agency recorded impressive and commendable achievements in facilitating the development of Nigeria into a sustainable digital economy.
“NITDA adheres strictly to information security and safety. The agency’s proactive action in creating a robust incident management procedure to adequately deal with any irregular or adverse event that occurs and affects the normal functioning of a system is a worthy accomplishment,” the statement read.
The award which falls into the ‘2020 Organizational Category’ highlights NITDA as the only government agency among other privately-owned organisations to be so recognised.
A statement from the organisers further read: “Another commendable attribute of the agency is its commitment to improve and sustain productivity through training and retraining of staff. As a matter of policy, every staff of NITDA is expected to have at least 40 hours of training within three years. This has resulted in improved competencies, knowledge and skills of the staff”.
The director-general, NITDA, Mallam Kashifu Abdullahi received the glamorous award on behalf of the agency.
Shortly after receiving the award from President Buhari, Abdullahi pledged the agency’s continuous determination towards the expansion of the digital space to impact the lives of more Nigerians through the development of an increased critical mass of IT-proficient and globally competitive manpower.
The National Productivity Order of Merit Award, which was part of activities to celebrate the 19th National Productivity Day, is an award of honour and dignity instituted by the Federal Government to recognise hard work and excellence.
As the only [government agency] recipient of the National Award this year and an apex IT agency charged with the responsibility of creating an enabling environment for Nigerians to develop, adopt and derive value from digital technologies, NITDA said it considers the “rare honour as not just a pat on the back but a challenge to intensify efforts” towards its digital inclusion pursuits.
The hope, NITDA believes, is to do the needful to get all Nigerians onboard the digital journey of the Federal Government and ensure that the country puts her best foot forward in being a part of the comity of technologically-driven nations.
