The National Information Technology Development Agency(NITDA)to partner with the Nigerian Army Resource Centre (NARC) on research and development solutions to tackle Nigeria’s security and allied challenges.
The agreement was reached during a courtesy visit to Director General of NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa by the Director-General Nigerian Army Resource Centre; Major General Garba A. Wahab, at the Agency’s Corporate Headquarters, Abuja.
General Wahab commended NITDA for assisting the Nigerian Army Resource Centre in providing ICT infrastructure and capacity building for the armed forces.
He recounted NITDA’s intervention to the centre two years ago, noting
“ICT equipment given to the centre has been of great impact and many officers and staff of the centre have benefitted immensely from the training conducted using those facilities”.
Wahab disclosed that the main concern is how to provide research-based solutions to security problems, particularly those facing the Nigerian Army.
“This time around, we are here to say thank you to NITDA, and also to ask for more intervention and support in ICT infrastructure in order to cater for the large number of personnel that requires the knowledge and usage of ICT”, He stated.
In his remarks, the NITDA Boss thanked the management of the Army Resource Centre for the visit and the acknowledgement of NITDA’s modest contribution to the centre.
Inuwa noted that most ICT innovations have their origin in the military as he strongly believes that the alliance between the two organisations will enhance the actualisation of their mandates.
The DG NITDA referred to the theory of the United States Air Force fighter pilot John Richard Boyd, who muted the OODA LOOP theory which states that you ‘Observe, Orient, Decide and Act’, as one of the theories used by the Agency to articulate the NITDA mandate.
Inuwa said he hoped for a situation where research from the resource centre and other research institutions in the country can be turned into physical beneficial products for national development.
He stated that NITDA focuses not only on research but also on development and that the relationship between the two organisations would foster a better Nigeria.
R and D are intertwined in NITDA to enable the production and implementation of such research outcome. National security is a big challenge in the country today of which I believe the deployment of technology such as drones and robotics can address”, the NITDA Boss maintained.
Inuwa agreed that both parties could work together since research is a major aspect of the military, noting that; “history shows that the Military and Information Technology have been strategic partners for a long time”.
The NITDA DG further said that the collaboration and sharing of theoretical aspects would foster the development of a prototype that would help the industry and the country at large.
Inuwa suggested that crowdsourcing of intelligence could be employed to develop a solution to the current challenges, adding that NITDA start-ups can be challenged to come up with innovation and the best ideas would be adopted.
He said recently the commissioning of the National Centre Artificial Intelligence and Robotics with facilities that can design and print prototype of Drones, Robots and other things will help to achieve this ” there is a need to set up a committee to work on the modalities promising to support the Army Resource Centre with IT infrastructures and look at a win-win situation from the collaboration for both organizations and the country in general”
A committee comprising of two Directors from NITDA and two Brig. Generals from the Army Resource Centre was commissioned and saddled with the assignment.
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