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ITAN moves to bridge gap between govt, ICT industries
The Information Technology Association of Nigeria (ITAN) has organized a workshop to bridge the gap between government, regulatory agencies in the ICT sector and private sector players, with a view to improving the sector.
The workshop themed “Nurturing the growth of Internet Enabled STARTUPS and Techpreneurs of new Technologies” held at Digital Bridge Institute, Abuja on Monday.
The convenor of the workshop and the chairman of ITAN international events and conferences, Mathias Isesieh said that the ultimate goal of the workshop was to bring together government, regulatory agencies in the ICT sector and private sector players in the ICT sector to understand government policies and how the government is helping them to grow.
“After COVID-19 pandemic there have been some gaps in communication and the government is doing a lot trying to encourage the SMEs to grow especially in the technology sector. We gathered here to share ideas and present our problems to find solutions.
In his opening remarks, ITAN president, Engr. Olutayo Adeniyi, said the association is working with relevant agencies to accelerate the growth indigenous ICT industries.
He said, ” Our aim is to accelerate the growth of digital transformation programs and inclusion as well as deepening internet penetration use, and adoption through guided technology-enabled investments and entrepreneurship advocacy for emerging technologies in the Nigerian ICT market space.
“The conference is inspired by the need for ITAN to put behind us the recent internal challenges that threatened the unity of members and return to our glorious leadership position as the nation’s leading IT industry association and a global player.”
The acting national coordinator of the Office for Nigerian Digital Innovation (ONDI) Yakubu Musa, said that regulation has been a major issue for the industries.
He said, “There is a gap between government and industries. Some see the regulations as a move to staple the industries. We have a leadership that is visionary and innovative.
“We have introduced developmental regulations. All the regulations are enabling. By doing that we make sure challenges facing the industries are solved. They are more of an intervention. We have come up with a regulatory intelligence framework. What it does is to sensitize the industries whether there is a need for regulation, because sometimes what is needed is intervention rather than regulation.”
Present at the event were the vice president of ITAN, Dr Yinusa Yau, who doubles as the executive director of CITAD, representatives of SMEDAN, office of SSG, FCTA, among others.
