The Nigerian senate has called out Information Communications and Technology sector not up to gauge over alleged non utilization of their expertise in the ongoing fight against the Boko Haram insurgence in the country.
This comes after Nigerian Communications Commission presented a N54.4 billion 2014 budget to the committee last week this would have N14.8 billion allocated to recurrent expenditure while N15.8 billion to capital expenditure while the sum of N7.4 billion was allocated to USPF projects.
Senate Committee on ICT, Senator Gilbert Nnaji agreed to the accusation saying in the spate of recurrent insecurity in the country, it was a shame for the sector to be regarded globally as having wealth of knowledge and expertise.
“In spite of the wealth of knowledge and expertise that Nigeria parades in this sector, it is bewildering that the rising insecurity in the country has been met with an embarrassing quietness from the ICT sector. Is it that this sector is devoid of the appropriate solution or technology to fight insecurity in Nigeria?” blasted Mr. Nnaji
With all said, the way forward for NCC is to partner with other stakeholders in the sector and share ideas on the available and potent technology to be deployed to stem the tide of insecurity in Nigeria.
The senator went ahead to point out the flop on the rural telephony initiatives in the country also describing the low access in the country as worrisome and should aim at achieving national connectivity and have sustained efforts to speed up its fibre optic programmes.
Being a global example in the telecoms milieu, Nigeria still lags behind in terms of broadband and internet penetration.