A Minister And Her Mandate

Minister of the newly created Ministry of Information and Communications Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson reveals her ministry’s mandate and how she intends to actualise them as reported by ROMMY IMAH......

*Minister of ICT, Omobola Johnson

As Country Managing Director for Accenture Nigeria, a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing giant, Mrs. Omobola Johnson, Nigeria’s pioneer minister in the newly created Ministry of Information and Communications Technology was said to be a high flier. In fact, her being the first woman to take up such a position in Accenture Nigeria is an attestation of the kind of personality Omobola Johnson is endowed with.

Like she admitted in an interactive session with ICT journalists late August, this year, Johnson does not in any way think that she could be intimidated by the litany of problems facing the Nigerian ICT industry. Even as a woman in charge of affairs at Accenture, she left her marks on the sands of time implementing Accenture’s strategies in Nigeria and the rest of West Africa.

Now, Omobola Johnson comes into the new ministry of the ICT with that strategic vision, skill, experience and network needed for a brand new ministry. In a manner replicating the passion of a messenger in an urgent mission, Johnson had to hurriedly meet with Journalists reporting her ministry and followed it up a month later with an interactive meeting with stakeholders in the ICT industry- moves described in some quarters as signs of good things that will unfold in the ministry under her.

In a four-point mandate which she earlier unveiled at a meeting with journalists, she said apart from the charge by the President, Goodluck Jonathan on how to take the country’s telecom sector to the next level where access to the Internet and ebusiness activities will become seamless as well as being able to build a more robust and successful IT industry, her ministry will be working on facilitating universal, ubiquitous and cost effective access to communications infrastructure

that includes a national fibre optic backbone; promoting the utilization of ICT in all spheres of life to optimize the communications infrastructure.

Others are promoting and facilitating the development of the ICT industry and in so doing, increase the contribution of the ICT industry to the country’s GDP; to deploy information and communication technologies to drive transparency in governance and improve the quality and cost effectiveness of public service delivery. For the minister, these may look Herculean but they have to be realised to help grow the country’s economy.

According to her, “Our aspirations for what ICT can do for Nigeria are ambitious – we believe that policies, programmes and plans that will be embarked upon to deliver on this mandate will  provide a launch pad for Nigeria to leap-frog from a resource- dependent to a knowledge-based economy.  Nigeria can be transformed into a major ICT hub where knowledge, technology and innovation are used as tools to not only drive wealth creation and empower citizens of the country, but also deployed to provide security, promote efficiency and national competitiveness for sustainable socio-economic development.”

It is no longer in contention that the economic development of any nation can only be accelerated by improvements in the country’s ICT infrastructure. Examples of nations that rode on the platform of ICT infrastructure to advance their economies abound. And that is why no amount of investment on the ICT sector should be considered too much. It has been proven in recent years that no modern economy can thrive without an integral information technology and telecoms infrastructure.

It is absolutely evident from the level of passion she has exhibited so far and indeed her body language that the minister is not unmindful of the fact that the place of the ICT industry as a modern tool for transformation makes it very important for madam minister to appreciate the critical role her ministry has to play in the actualization of the transformational agenda of the Goodluck Jonathan administration. As an Accenture alumnus, she is not new to the magic ICTs can bring into transforming businesses.

At a stakeholders’ meeting held in Lagos late September, the minister expressed her desire to superintend the ICT sector through evolution and administration of forward looking policies developed in partnership with all sector stakeholders and designed to create an increasingly vibrant ICT industry capable of enabling Nigeria to bridge the digital divide and appropriate the full benefits of ICTs.

At the meeting tagged “Roundtable on creation of a digital economy and information society in Nigeria,” the minister pledged working on creating a focussed, effective and integrated regulatory framework for the implementation of Government ICT Policies in order to meet the goals and objectives contained in the mandate.

She added that she will work towards advising and consulting for Government on necessary ICT developmental and support mechanisms that will enable the achievement of universal access to ICT services, thus generate wide usage of ICTs and leverage this access and usage to accelerate national development.

In a highly fragmented ICT sector where there is a proliferation of small businesses with low value; where hardware manufacturing and assembling has developed with snail speed as a result of poor infrastructural support; where the software industry, (money spinner for some countries), is underdeveloped due majorly on paucity of fund and government neglect, the task of realising the minister’s four key mandates is onerous.

But in her policy direction and interventions in the next four years, the minister had identified some key areas that need sincere intervention if her ministry hopes to realize the presidential mandate. Topping this list is software development through the creation of awareness as well as strengthening the implementation of intellectual property laws; setting up of ICT parks and the promotion of local software innovations, research and development.

While pledging to accelerate Internet penetration in the country through increment in the number of usage from current 34million to about 70million in 2015, the minister promised to work hard to ensure a massive roll-out of broadband infrastructure to result to a phenomenal growth of up to 12 per cent in 2015 from a paltry 6 per cent.

In contributing to the creation of an enabling environment for investors and local developers, the minister assured that her ministry would be collaborating with other MDAs to create an investor and business-friendly environment including the acceleration of the provision of enabling infrastructure such as electric power. Besides promoting regulation to increase competitiveness in the market, she said her ministry will in addition promote legislation that facilitates and supports the digital economy and information society among other things.

As a matter of urgency, the minister said her ministry will strive to harmonise the various disparate policies that currently govern the ICT sector and the development of a national ICT policy; accelerate the roll out of broadband infrastructure including securing critical resources and essential facilities and increase the online presence of Nigerian businesses and institutions through collaborations and partnerships.

The ministry will further articulate eGovernment and mGovernment requirements; create an ICT Cadre in all ministries to ensure quality and value driven ICT services and refocus and strengthen agencies and parastatals under the supervision of the Ministry of the ICT.

Only time will tell how far the honourable minister, Omobola Johnson will go in actualising these mandates.