Government and Private Sector Partnerships

 Policy Statement 


Recognizing that the IT should be private sector driven, government shall engage joint venture investment with the private sector, in addition to the provision of an enabling environment for investment

 Objectives 

  1. To provide an enabling environment so that private ventures can flourish.

  2. To use favourable fiscal policies to make Nigerian IT products and services globally competitive.

  3. To ensure that NITDA in collaboration with the private sector develops a large pool of IT professionals with wide range of state of-the-art IT skills for internal and international redress of shortages.

  4. To establish joint Government/Private sector institutional framework for developing Advisory Standards and quality control.

  5. o encourage local capacity building by providing guaranteed markets in specialized and strategic IT sectors.

Strategies 

  1. Establishing and operation of Information technology free zones also known as IT Parks to attract IT investment. All companies located within the IT free zones or Export Processing zones (EPZ) are to be granted the same incentives.

  2. The IT parks may be set-up by Federal or State Governments, public or private sector undertakings or any combination thereof. The IT parks will greatly enhance the ease of doing business by providing favourable access to the Nigerian domestic markets and providing incentive for export production. All IT Parks will be subject to certification as designated Free Zones by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA).

  3. Developing government/private sector R & D partnerships through equitable facilities sharing and by establishment of Pilot Schemes in software and hardware development within/outside designated IT Parks.

  4. Establishing and supporting the National IT Development Trust Fund (NITDEF), which amongst its other activities, will provide venture capital finance to the start up of SMEs in the IT sector. The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) will manage this fund.

  5. Promoting equity participation with IT investors both locally and internationally.

  6. Establishing an export promotion drive to sponsor participation of Nigerian IT solutions and service providers in national and international IT exhibitions.

  7. Setting up "power corridors" to the IT parks to ensure consistent and reliable power supply.

  8. Removing all bureaucratic bottlenecks to the development of local capacity building.