Buhari approves new NIMC budget to enable the delivery of national digital economy project
President Muhammadu Buhari has approved a new budget of N5billion for the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) in order to enable the commission to meet up with the needed infrastructure for the national digital economy project.
Speaking at the presentation of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA’s) Employee-Centric Condition and Scheme of Service documents to the public, the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Pantami said there was an upward review of the NIMC budget from between N500 million and N700 million in the previous years to about N5 billion this year as part of the commitments of the president to digitalize the economy.
The minister applauded the President for his support and approval of proposals on the development of the Information Communications Technology (ICT) sector, saying the contributions of the sector to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the last quarter of 2020 were as a result of the support.
“We are doing our best to justify this confidence by ensuring that our initiatives support the programmes of the Government.”
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“The 2020 Fourth Quarter (Q4 2020) GDP Report recently released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed that our modest efforts are yielding positive results; this reflected in the significant growth experienced by the ICT Sector.”
“The Report indicated that the ICT sector recorded a 14.7per cent growth rate, making it the sector with the highest growth rate. The growth rate of the ICT sector was over 4 times the growth rate of the Agriculture sector, which was the sector with the second-highest growth rate,” the minister said.
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Pantami further said the Scheme of Service would serve as a tool for making NITDA more functional as it develops into becoming one of the most strategic government institutions in the country.
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He said the documents provided the approved status for the agency and specifies the skills and certifications required for appointment and promotion, stressing that the Scheme identified 15 different cadres for the Agency.
The minister said NIMC and NIPOST would be supported by the Federal Government to enable them to carry out their critical and statutory functions which would boost national Identity and security and promote a digital economy.
He noted that Conditions of Service is to re-engineer the operations and structure of government agencies with the aim of providing an enabling environment for effective strategy development and execution.