The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), a parastatal of the Federal Ministry of Communication Technology has concluded arrangements to host an IT stakeholder workshop for the purpose of fine-tuning draft standards and guidelines for made- in- Nigeria IT hardware products. The workshop slated for May 15 and 16, 2012 would hold at the Westown Hotel Ikeja Lagos.

The IT standards retreat is being coordinated on the platform of the National Technical Committee (NTC) on IT Standards. The NTC was established by NITDA as a specialized organ for IT standards development in the country.

It could be recalled that the Hon Minister for Communication Technology inaugurated the Committee in November last year (2011). The prescription of minimum standards for Nigerian IT products is intended to ensure that made-in-Nigeria IT products meet global standards; ensure that Nigerians would have no more excuse not to patronize made-in Nigeria ; consolidate the NITDA campaign for Nigerians to buy made-in-Nigeria products in IT and provide the enabling framework for the development of the indigenous IT sector.

The Director-General of NITDA, Prof Cleopas Angaye, is expected to use the occasion of the workshop to remind Government MDAs that the Federal Government mandatory policy which requires the public sector to procure low end Nigerian IT products is still in force. The Agency has created an Online Public Complaints Platform to track any disregard for the policy and to monitor compliance to minimum standards by product manufacturers in accordance with section 6 of the NITDA Act of 2007.