THE National Information and Technology Development Agency of Nigeria (NITDA) is to commence the review of the national software policy, which was submitted to it by the National Software Policy Committee next month.The Director General of NITDA, Prof. Cleopas Angaye, who received the draft policy from the committee members at the weekend, said the inauguration of the committee was based on the recognition of the fact that Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has been globally accepted as the major tool for sustainable socio economic development in the current global economy and software development is the engine of this powerful tool.According to him it is apparent that the software industry no doubt is of utmost importance to future competitiveness for economies across the globe. He therefore calls for measure that will protect Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) of inventors in the country.He said Nigeria has witnessed tremendous growth in the ICT sector in the last one decade as Internet penetration has increased at an unprecedented rate of less than 200,000 regular users around 1999 to the current rate of over 40 million users.This, he said, has positioned Nigeria as the leader in Internet penetration statistics on the continent as the growth and the deployment of ICT in almost all sectors of the economy have led to considerable investment in software both in the Public and Private sectors.Angaye noted that the development in the ICT sector has laid credence to the fact that there is an urgent need to develop appropriate policy to guide 'Software Nigeria' in order to meet our local software requirements, diversify our economy from a mono economy mainly based on oil and explore the knowledge economy that can provide alternative source of revenue for the country.While recognising the various efforts and attempts at developing the software sub sector of ICT sector in Nigeria, Angaye said these efforts include the National Software Development Initiative, National Software Development Taskforce and the national IT policy, the presentation of the National Software Policy is therefore a continuation of the previous efforts.He said the current realities of national economies across the globe has brought about the need to diversify our national economy and position the country as a key player in the global knowledge based and ICT driven economy.According to him the process of enhancing and marketing 'Software Nigeria' as an internationally acceptable brand is therefore very apt and of utmost importance to the Federal Government's transformation agenda.While commending the hard work put in drafting the policy by the committee, which was set up in December 10, 2010, Angaye said NITDA shall commence immediate actions on the next stage of submission to the Federal Executive Council through the Minister for Communication Technology.'All necessary follow up actions shall commence without delay and NITDA shall continue to collaborate with all relevant stakeholders and the international community in order to ensure appropriate positioning of the country amongst the comity of nations in the current digital age', he added.
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