The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) said it has entered into a partnership with a Russian digital company, Independence Digital, as a show of its commitment to the implementation of the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS) by constantly collaborating with relevant stakeholders to harness resources for the digital transformation of Nigeria.
A statement from the agency said its director-general, Mallam Kashifu Abdullahi, received a team from Independence Digital, led by its president, Pavel Maximenko, at the agency offices in Abuja, to discuss possible areas of collaboration and partnership.
While briefing the Russian visitors, Abdullahi stated that the NDEPS, a 10-year policy plan, was launched in 2019 by the Federal Government of Nigeria to digitally transform the nation.
“Since we are talking about software development, we need to come up with software-related policies, standards and frameworks that will meet international standards,” he noted.
The DG opined that all government ministries, departments and agencies need to be digitised and, therefore, sought collaboration with the visitors in giving Nigeria a great degree of digital independence.
Abdullahi, who was represented by the agency’s director, information technology infrastructure solutions, Dr. Usman Abdullahi, emphatically stated that indigenous content development and promotion remained a primary focus of the agency which has necessitated collaborations with developers.
“As Russia doesn’t use solutions developed outside Russia, we in Nigeria would love to collaborate with you so that you can help us achieve this,” he stated.
Abdullahi assured of the agency’s willingness to share other open documents such as the Cloud Computing Policy and the National Broadband Implementation Plan with the visitors while emphasising that the NITDA SRAP will remain the primary focus.
He concluded that the idea of the regulations was not to stifle innovations and it was, therefore. necessary to co-create and work with developers who will understand the needs and create regulatory instruments as well as frameworks that will support the regulations.
Maximenko, in his earlier remark, appreciated NITDA for meeting them and assured the agency of his firm’s collaboration in areas of capacity-building to improve infrastructure already built.
He stated that his organisation, a certified partner of most major Russian software developers such as the Kaspersky Lab, eXpress, Infowatch, Security Code and others, is excited about collaborating with NITDA on software development.
“We will provide solutions to your challenges and arrange for our engineers to meet with yours in building a supportive framework,” he promised.
