The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and MTN Nigeria are set to strengthen collaboration in the areas of human capital development and promote innovation.
The Director-General of NITDA, Mr. Kashifu Inuwa stated this when he received the newly appointed MTN Nigeria’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Karl Toriola and his team at the Agency’s corporate headquarters.
Mr. Toriola was at the Agency to familiarise himself with the activities of NITDA and to further strengthen the partnership already existing between the Agency and organisation
Inuwa said that human capital development is one of the key areas the agency is focusing on “as we need to train our people to understand the new technologies before we develop and use it.”
In view of this, the DG NITDA urged MTN to collaborate with the Agency to train as many persons as possible.
“In terms of infrastructure, we have done a lot in that aspect as we have provided infrastructure to underserved and un-served communities because you need to have the infrastructure to be able to connect to the service. As business people, I urged you to create an avenue where people are easily and freely connected to the service as it will create more users and in turn generate more fund”, he said.
While addressing the team, Inuwa noted that MTN was one of the supporting organisation that has helped the Agency in achieving some of its set goals noting that “as such, we need to find ways we can work hand in hand in terms of regulations and make sure what we do is in the best interest of the public”
“The regulation we do is not to discourage innovation or to limit you rather our regulations are developmental regulations that help to unlock opportunities and to also create an enabling environment for you and other players”, he reiterated.
He said that “NITDA’s regulations are formed in two ways either the Agency deciding on what and what to set as regulations or they sit with the industry players to decide on what kind of regulations can be made”.
NITDA Boss applauded MTN for doing its best in the area of compliance and commended the company for the prompt payment of its levies.
Speaking earlier, Mr. Toriola maintained that the MTN Nigeria Privacy and Data Protection service has been developed and adopted by the board.
“It has been deployed across our business and with constant engagement with NITDA officials who have provided us with necessary support and guidance, we have carried out an audit of our privacy data compliance practices with the Nigerian Data Protection Regulations requirements,” the MTN Boss stated.
He added that the data breach management has been developed and deployed adding that the company has embarked on a programme that will promote local content in Nigeria which includes ecosystem support to provide ICT innovation, STEM to accelerate local innovations.
Nnenna.O
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