NITDA takes campaign on imperative of scrutinizing IT projects to accountant general’s office, others
In efforts to enhance governance for effective service delivery, and with National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) asserting its mandate as the clearing house for all government Information Technology, (IT) projects, the Agency has taken the campaign on the imperative of scrutinizing IT projects of the Federal Public Institutions to the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, Office of the Auditor General of the Federation and Bureau of Public Procurement.
According to the Agency, the visit focused on the presentation of NITDA’s Reviewed IT Project Clearance Guidance Document—an updated framework designed to standardise the planning, funding, and execution of IT projects in line with national digital economy goals.
The document, a revision of the 2018 Guidelines for Clearance of IT Projects, emphasises cost-effectiveness, regulatory compliance, and transparency, reinforcing NITDA’s role as the clearing house for all government IT initiatives under the National Information Technology Development Act (2007.)
During these visits, NITDA’s Director General, Kashifu Inuwa emphasised that the Agency cannot work in isolation to achieve the Renewed Hope Agenda of transforming the economy digitally, adding “And we need to explore how we can strengthen our partnerships and collaborations in line with the President’s agenda.”
“56 percent IT projects failed to deliver on what were promised because we go for latest technology, and failure to design before building the technology and lack of consideration for the business value proposition we are trying to deliver with the projects. We are building a digitised government service; and government is one. We need to work together, work harmoniously, the same way IT system works to deliver these services. For us to achieve this, we need to be more intentional in the way we design, and implement. And if we continue to design and implement in silos, they will never worked together”, he added.
He maintained that the idea behind the reviewed guideline is to ensure that IT projects are designed in line with the mindset of interoperability in order for Ministries Departments and Agencies, (MDAs) to explore shared services and follow the best practices and standard.
According to the Director General, the proposed guideline has three steps of IT projects implementations which are; the Solution Design, the Implementation and Quality Assurance steps.
He added that going forward; contractors are required to get license and certified employees on these three steps for their companies before government’s IT projects could be awarded to them.
At the Bureau of Public Procurement, the Director General, Dr. Adebowale Adedokun stressed the significance of standardising IT Project Bidding Documents, adding “It is disheartening that organisations misuse IT projects to siphon public funds—resources that could otherwise be channeled towards impactful initiatives that can transform the country”.
He disclosed that MDAs come with IT projects that were adopted without standardisation and guideline “but with this new guideline our decision should pave ways for the development of the IT sector of the country.”
Similarly, the Accountant General, Shamseldeen Ogunjimi, commended NITDA’s efforts to standardise IT project implementation and expressed readiness to support the integration of the clearance guidelines into financial processes.
