The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) on Monday agreed on a joint committee for the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) industry.
This is contained in a statement signed by Mr Tony Ojobo, the Director, Public Affairs, NCC, and made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Monday.
Ojobo said the committee would design a framework for collaboration aimed at optimising development efforts for telecommunications and ICT in the country.
He noted that the agreement was the outcome of the interactions between the heads of the two establishments.
He said both organisations agreed that a new era of inter-agency collaboration, especially within the ICT agencies would bring about desirable results in line with global best practices.
According to him, the joint Committee is expected to provide detailed areas of collaboration and terms of reference which will be initialed by the two organisations in due course.
Ojobo urged the committee members to work assiduously to ensure that the objective of the collaboration was realised.
“We must concentrate on those things that we know, that with the right investments and involvement of our human capital resources, we would realise them.
“Those things that we can show the world about the giant strides that are being made in this country, especially in the area of Information and Communications Technology,” he said.
According to him, the agreement to collaborate is consistent with the mandates of the two entities to ensure deeper penetration of ICTs.
“We have to be mindful of the fact that, the more you introduce services, the more you burden the infrastructure on ground.
“I hope that you (committee) will take cognisance of what you need to do to address the existing capacity of infrastructure.
“What we are looking at is the progress we are steadily making by the day.
“This is to ensure we reach the destination of what we call a networked society, a society that is e-driven, a society that is ICT driven.
“We are looking at a society that will be relying on the power and leveraging on ICT to conduct all kinds of businesses.
“The Information Technology sub-sector, and the telecom sector, already work together now in their operations.
“Therefore, if those of us at the helm of affairs that are driving the industry do not work together, we will not go far,’’ he said.