BY EBRIKU JOHN FRIDAY
The Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency, NITDA, Mr. Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, CIIE, received yesterday in his office a delegation from CISCO, an International Information Technology solutions provider. The company was at NITDA’s Corporate Headquarters to inform the DG about the desire of CISCO to further strengthen the existing relationship of over a decade.
CISCO is seeking to make NITDA a Super Academy Support Centre that will coordinate, monitor and provide support services for other CISCO Academy in the country, as well as mentorship in development of programmes similar to the one it had in Egypt, as a way of strengthening the already rewarding and fruitful partnership it has enjoyed with NITDA over the years.Academy Support Centre is next to CISCO in hierarchy.
CISCO is also asking NITDAto partner withit in hosting the forthcoming Annual International Safari Conference in Abuja. The Safari conference is an annual event organised by CISCO where all its partners and Academy all over English speaking West and Central Africa converge.
CISCO has also initiated a programme with National University Commission, (NUC), with about 50 Universities to train people on Cyber security in addition to the over 400,000 individuals it has trained in about 250 Academy spread across the country.
In his welcoming remarks, the DG of NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa reminded the delegate that CISCO Academy used to be under the Director, Information Technology Infrastructure Solutions (ITIS), Dr Abdullahi Gambo Usman, who was also present at the meeting, before it was rebranded and transferred to the Special Duties Unit under the Office of the Director General and renamed NITDA Academy. This was to allow other IT solutions providers to participate freely.
The DG noted that capacity building is one of the key pillars of NITDA’s strategic road map for ICT development; as such the Agency is widening its scope and working on a framework which every other service providers can plug in.
According to Inuwa, “We need to understand that our greatest resources are not what is beneath us in terms of natural resources but what lies inside us. Hence, NITDA has trained a lot of people ranging from artisans, graduates and people working in government up to Chief Executive Level.”
He however called on CISCO to demonstrate commitment in whatever is agreed upon by way of counterpart funding because the company stands to benefit a lot from training people in ICT.
He agreed that whatever contributions they make compliments the mandate of NITDA as much as it benefits the company.
“The Agency’s doors are open for collaborations and partnership from every willingorganisation, so CISCO is welcome to submit a proposal which will be considered by our team of experts,” he said.
