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ICT is Key to Achieving Vision 2020 - World Bank

Written by Adeleke Afolayan

Monday, 23 June 2008

Building an Information and Communications Technology (ICT) platform initiative is key to achieving the Nigerian Government's dream of becoming one of the world's top 20 economies by 2020 according to the World Bank.

This was made known by the Country Director of the financial institution Mr. Onno Ruhl at the first workshop on the Nigerian eGovernment Interoperability Framework held yesterday in Abuja, adding that Nigeria already is a regional powerhouse in all areas that can drive ICT.

Mr. Ruhl added that the country also has strong drivers to back the ICT industry, identifying the telecommunications, banking and entertainment industries as additional areas in which the eGovernment could drive ICT, stating that in all countries where ICT is important, eGovernment is an important driver.

In his words, "We shouldn't spend time on protocol; we should spend time on exploring the
opportunities of ICT in Nigeria. I am here for a very specific reason; the World Banks' mission in Nigeria is to support the government on the 7 point agenda and the realization of Vision 2020."

"Now, vision 2020 is an extremely ambitious vision that requires a tremendous level of growth to realize and if you look at other countries and where they are coming from, it immediately becomes clear that ICT must be a very important part of realizing this vision for Nigeria."

Mr. Ruhl pointed out that 35% of productivity growth in the European Union comes from ICT and 25% of GDP growth is achieved through ICT; underlining the importance of ICT in the development of Nigeria.

According to him, ICT is the one area where developing countries have shown successfully that they can outperform the traditional developed countries.

Also speakimg at the workshop, the Director General of National Information Technology Development (NITDA) Professor Cleopas Angaye explained that Interoperability of information systems refers to the ability to share information in distributed, computing environment.

According to him, lack of interoperability between ICT systems is becoming more and more a bottleneck in the collaboration and cooperation of enterprises, stressing that companies should interoperate with each other to avoid wasting hours during transactions.

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	1. Written by This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it on 22-10-2008 12:55 - Guest
	ICT,key to realisation of Nig vision 2020

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Last Updated ( Monday, 23 June 2008 )

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