A former Registrar of the Computer Professionals Registration Council of Nigeria (CPN), Mr. Sikiru Shehu, has said that the Lagos State Government would need to establish an ICT development agency fashioned after the federal government’s National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA).
Sikiru, who stated this during a symposium organized by the Body of Computer Cadres in the Unified Local Government of Lagos State (BCLG), said the establishment of such an agency has become expedient to create an enabling environment that would ensure that the grassroots governments are flowing in line with the Lagos State Smart City agenda.
While noting that the State’s Ministry of Science and Technology seems to have become overwhelmed with serving all the MDAs in the state, he said an ICT development agency would capacity building, IT infrastructural development, and resource sharing, and coordinate all IT departments in the state’s local governments.
Creation of the law
While noting that the agency, like NITDA, should be a creation of the state’s law the former Registrar said:
- “Lagos needs something like the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) within the state. Such an agency will complement the activities of the Ministry of Science and Technology. It’s possible that the Ministry is currently being overwhelmed serving all the MDAs in the state. Such an Agency, which will be a creation of the law, could be named Lagos State Information Technology Development Agency (LITDA or LASITDA) and it could house the smart city project, and carry along the local governments in IT development.”
ICT structure in local governments
Sikiru observed that the Ministry of Science and Technology has been responsible for, and indeed coordinating, all the ICT units in all the Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs).
- “Every ICT officer in the state is posted and coordinated by the Ministry of Science and Technology; and for only IT support activities, while the main IT directorate resides in the Ministry of Science and Technology.
- “As against the current practice, It is my belief that Local Governments as government establishments should have a structure where there will be a technical IT Department for each Local Government, from where IT support will get to other offices within the Local Governments,” he said
He, however, commended the state government for establishing ICT Units in Local Governments of the state. He urged every other state government in Nigeria to emulate Lagos and start from somewhere.
Body of Computer Cadres in the Unified Local Government of Lagos State (BCLG) is a Technical Interest Group of staff of the Lagos State Public Service in the Local Governments (LGs) and Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) of the state, who have backgrounds and official responsibilities in Computing and Information Technology.
The body officially came up in 2020 and was instrumental in the establishment of Information Communication Technology Units (ICT Units) in all 20 LGs and 37 LCDAs by the state government, the first of its kind by any state in the country.