Nigeria's National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), the agency mandated to transform Nigeria into an IT driven economy for global competitiveness is currently working with UNECA in building ICT measurement capacity in the country. “Scan-ICT is an initiative launched by the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the Government of Finland to make available quality data on ICT activities in Africa and it will create an enabling environment for the compilation of ICT indicators to be part of the activities of National Statistical Offices,” it said in a press statement. According to the statement signed by the spokesperson of NITDA, Hadiza Umar, the initiative which Phase I started in November 2000 and ended in 2004 and involves six African countries, including Ghana, Senegal, Morocco, Uganda, Mozambique and Ethiopia, while in 2004, a set of CORE ICT indicators was initiated and was finally adopted by the Second African Preparatory Conference for the World Summit of the Information Society in February 2005. The second phase was however launched in 2005, and built upon the experiences of the first phase program, following which, it was decided that the methodologies on core indicators and frameworks should be under the coordination of National Statistical Offices. Umar said she hopes the new efforts will “stimulate the industry toward a betterment of IT services in the country and the region, with the hope of Nigeria being the leader.” BM
