The National Council on Communication Technology (NCCT) held its second session in Akure, Ondo State at the week of August 18-24, 2013. Group Executive Editor, DigitalSENSE Business News, REMMY NWEKE, was there and reports that drive to adopt .gov.ng among government institutions gained a step with the adoption of memo by Office, Head of Civil Service of the Federation (OHCSF).
Introduction:
THE second meeting of the National Council on Communication
Technology (NCCT) commenced with the technical committee two-day session in
Akure, Ondo State on Monday 19, August 2013 at the Jojein Hotels and Resorts,
with attendance drawn from mostly Directors of Federal and States Ministries,
Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
At the opening session, the Permanent Secretary, Federal
Ministry of Communication Technology, Dr. Henry Akpan, gave a keynote address,
saying that the focus of the second NCCT meeting was leveraging Information
Communication Technology (ICT) for national transformation. To this extent, he
noted that several Memoranda on issues that are germane to national
transformation have been submitted for consideration by several stakeholders
from the federal and state government levels.
The meeting, he said, is expected to consolidate on the
strides made in the industry since the inaugural meeting held in Abuja in April
2012, stressing the importance to reiterate that the policy thrust of
government is to achieve the needed convergence of the various subsectors of
the ICT industry and geared towards moving the country to a knowledge-based
economy.
“I want to re-emphasise that this vision cannot be achieved
without the co-operation and synergy of the three tiers of government which
this Council is set to ensure,” he charged, adding that ICT sector has become
the fourth largest contributor to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), even as
other key sectors of the economy have also recognized the importance of ICT in
efficient service delivery.
Robust deliberations:
This, he believes could be attested to by the number of
Memoranda received from other sectors seeking to leverage ICT for growth, thus,
Akpan hopes the outcome of the second meeting of NCCT would further deepen the
transformation process in the country. The Permanent Secretary was also quick
to add that consolidating the achievements recorded so far was crucial for the
meeting of the technical arm of NCCT to conduct a very robust deliberation and
recommend decision which would translate to policies that will positively move
the ICT industry forward.
He said that the adoption of the outcome and its
implementation by all stakeholders both at the Federal and State government
levels will take ICT industry to a higher level, reduce the dependency of the
country on oil as a major source of revenue and make the industry a major
creator of jobs and wealth.
Dr. Akpan pointed out that the outcome has the capacity to
alter substantially citizen-government engagements as Nigeria moves on the path
towards becoming a knowledge-based economy, just as he expects that in no
distance time, the country will reap the benefits of the technologies in
enhancing their respective sectors.
NCCT’s technical session and switch to NG campaign:
As soon as the technical session commenced, mostly after
memo 1 and 2, it was turn for Memo 3, entitled ‘ICT Council Nationwide Adoption
of Nigeria’s Country Code (NG) by Governments at all levels” with proposition
that every government’s Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAS) across all
the three tiers of government, to migrate their domain names to the NG country
code Top Level Domain (ccTLD).
DigitalSENSE Business News gathered that this follows the
presentation by the Director, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) at
the office of the Head of Service of the Federation, Mr. Sehinde Akinnusi’s
memo to the council and sponsored by the duo of Head of Civil Service of the
Federation, Alhaji Buka G. Aji and Honourable Minister of Communication
Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson.
According to him, the memo was to obtain the concurrence of
the State Governments to collaborate with the Federal Government on the policy
to officially commence processes online through the government platforms that
ends with .gov.NG. This is in addition to government’s desire to promote the
ccTLD .NG among MDAs.
Noting that it was in pursuance of this objective that the
National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and Galaxy Backbone
Limited, under the CommTech ministry collaboration with Nigeria Internet
Registration Association (NIRA) and Office of the Head, Civil Service of the
Federation (OHCSF) to come up with a strategy of implementation.
Council sets deadline for nationwide switch to NG by MDAs
The memo to NCCT also prayed among other things that the
Federal, State and Local Governments should jointly promote the .NG ccTLD,
which is similar to .FR for France and .UK for United Kingdom; a prayer that
was overwhelmingly accepted.
However, one of the representatives of the Kano State
government suggested that a time line be fixed for the migration within a year
from date of proposition. Some delegates suggested December 2014, while others
opted for August 19, 2014. At the end, the presiding chairman suggested August
18, 2014, which means before the next Council session and this was accepted
without a dissenting voice, hence the deadline was set for August 18, 2014.
Endorsing the adoption, a representative from the Office of
the National Security Adviser (NSA) said it would save Nigeria a lot of trouble
especially in the management of the online security and its attendant cost of
solving issues around foreign domain names by the government and its agencies.
Also agreed by the Council was that State governments create
relevant awareness need among citizens, both in the public and private sector,
on the need to promote .NG on the Internet.
Commendation for the council:
Summarizing the adoption, the chairman of the technical
committee and Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Communication Technology,
Dr. Henry Akpan, commended council members for giving their nods on the memo.
He also applauded the office of the Head of Service of the
Federation for finding it relevant to support the course of harmonizing the
domain names and electronic mailing system of the nation’s MDAs, from federal
to the states and down to the local government authorities.
20 States in attendance:
About 20 states including the Federal Capital Territory
(FCT) Abuja, participated in this session, second in series of the annual
council meeting, with Lagos State conspicuously missing.
Noteworthy is that Lagos State occupies a focal position in
the Nigerian ICT sector, especially by playing host to all the Mobile Network
Operators (MNOs) which traverses voice and data communications in the country,
and constitutes a major subscriber population to telecommunications services.
According to DigitalSENSE Business News investigations, Lagos
houses over 15 per cent of active subscriptions in the country, which include
internet subscriptions for corporate and premium mobile.
Equally of note was that only Abia State was in attendance
from the Eastern part of the country, which was obviously condemned by a
Director in NITDA, Dr. Emeka Ezekwesili, who lamented the absence of these
states, saying it does not help matters in terms of moving at the same pace
with other states in the country.
Conclusion:
Eventually, about 35 memoranda presented in the two-day
technical meeting of the council and it is believed that those accepted by will
be presented to the Council decision making arm, made up of the Honourable
Minister for Communication Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson as chairman and
Commissioners of CommTech and Science Technologies across the federation.
With this endorsement, it is expected that by this time next
year, the story will be different as those who still have their domain names
with foreign domain prefix would have reverted for good to the right string,
which is .NG.
Just as it is expected that if this is done, more NIRA
accredited registrars, especially those in charge of .gov.ng, will take up the
opportunities to offer not only the registration but other associated job
creations for the youth populace.
No comments:
Post a Comment