Dr Johnson disclosed that a review of the ICT sector conducted by the Ministry in 2011 revealed that there were relatively low levels of participation by local companies when compared to the size of the opportunities in the sector. This drove the decision to make the increased participation of local companies and domestic value-add a priority in the Ministrys policy formulation. Thus the Ministry of Communication Technology introduced Guidelines for Nigerian Content Development in ICT in December 2013 to support the realisation of Local Content Development policy thrust after a series of engagements and consultations with key stakeholders. The Guidelines provide measures that will encourage growth of the local ICT industry, stimulate investments, job & wealth creation in the sector, improve standards as well as the quality assurance on offer from the local ICT industry. They will also encourage a more balanced share of the market between domestic and international brands and importantly, help to improve security and control of government data.The Ministry has also since setup an implementing office, the Office for Nigerian Content Development in ICT (ONC), headed by a National Coordinator Dr Johnson added that the need to continue to invest in broadband infrastructure to deliver ubiquitous internet for all Nigerians is unarguable but there is also a need for infrastructure investments in essential complementary services that are critical to delivering enhanced, cost efficient access to the internet. Dr Johnson reiterated that ‘’Today a disproportionate amount of the data generated by our increasingly technology-dependent economy is stored outside of this country denying the local providers of data storage and business applications recovery service offerings of revenues and opportunities to scale up their service offerings. Too many of the websites that are visited daily and almost solely by Nigerians are hosted offshore. Even when we do make use of locally hosted websites; the critical switching of our Internet traffic is done by Internet exchanges outside of the country. This adds to the cost and response time when local users access these websites. It is therefore with great excitement that I am here today to witness the commissioning of Main One’s Tier III data centre. This data centre, representing an investment of $ 40 Million, is the largest of its kind in West Africa at 1,500 square meters and a 600-rack capacity. This data center also represents a significant addition of professionally designed, delivered and managed data hosting capacity that will improve the Internet services available to companies in Nigeria and the sub Region’’.
Posted on: Thu, 15 Jan 2015 22:49:01 +0000
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