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The Director General, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Mallam Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, today in Abuja, presented a proposal to the National Assembly for the amendment of ‘NITDA Act 2007’ so as to align it with the digital economy policy of President Muhammadu Buhari and his envisioned active participation of Nigeria in the 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR).
Mallam Abdullahi clamored for the need to keep up with the trends in the IT world to reflect the changing opportunities and challenges. He said this underscores the need for a review of the ‘NITDA ACT 2007’.
In today’s world, people rely on different social media handles to make informed decisions, said Abdullahi citing the example of Google for definition/meanings, news report, or navigation; NETFLIX for recommendation on trending movies; AMAZON or ALIBABA sites for what to buy; as well as other social media handles like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
He explained further on the volatility of the human species, saying; “The kind of information we store on our phones and other technological gadgets make the human brain susceptible to the possibility of being hacked”.
While expressing concern over the vulnerability of humans who he said are being threatened by the emerging technologies, he posited: “Technology disruption is the most disturbing and the least understood. Technology is taking over the only thing that differentiates us (humans) from other animals”.
He stated that, the era is marked by advancement in digital transformation and artificial intelligence. Quoting Mckinsey Global Institute’s latest report ‘on what the future of work and the implication for jobs, skills and wages’, he argued that that about 20,000 million jobs face displacement by the year 2030.
“Keeping up with the global pace has compelled the need to urgently mutate and realign the current ‘NITDA ACT 2007’ to meet the present outlook of the emerging technology in order to secure a place for Nigeria in the emerging global digital economy and 4th industrial revolution,” said the NITDA’s boss.
The Chairman, Senate Committee on ICT and Cybercrimes, Senator Yakubu Oseni, affirmed that the ICT revolution has accelerated the pace of globalization. He agreed with the NITDA’s boss that Nigeria cannot afford to lag behind. He promised that his committee will work assiduously with the house committee and other relevant stakeholders to ensure accelerated passage of the new amendment act for NITDA.
“The world has moved into the blazing digital ecosystem, accelerating at the speed of light, with very effective and disruptive innovation and models, such as; Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data, Robotics, Machine learning, Cloud Computing, Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain implementation and other emerging technologies…”he explained.
Oseni applauded NITDA’s move towards improving its digital space and pledges the support of his committee to the actualization of passing the bill into law.
While delivering his own remarks, Hon. Abubarkar Lado, the Chairman, House of Representative Committee on Information and Communication Technology, added that, the importance of making all necessary amendments in regards to enacting an enabling law for NITDA, as the Apex body in regulatory and development of ICT in Nigeria, is long overdue.
He said, in a sector where technology changes almost every minute, the legislation should be robust enough to accommodate the nature of the ecosystem. He also promised the support of his committee in the passing of the NITDA Amendment bill into law.
