Nigeria: FG Spends N12 Billion On Software for Banks

Federal Government has disclosed that not less than N127billion (US $1billion) is spent on the importation of software annually for use in the banking sector of the country.

Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Prof. Cleopas Angaye who stated this at the forum organized by the National Association of Science Journalists (NASJ) in Abuja explained that the amount above was only for the banking sector as the country was yet to get a final figure for the importation of software for other sectors.
Angaye noted that about 95 per cent of all software used in Nigeria are being imported, adding that the government is poised to develop local capacity in ICT which led to the Act establishing the NITDA in 2001.
According to him, the Act stipulates that “a levy of one percent (1 per cent) of the profit before tax of companies and enterprises shall be tax deductible for the development of Information Technology in the country”

Speaking on the rate of software usage in the country, the NITDA boss who was represented by the Director of Planning Research and Statistics in the Agency, Dr. M.O. Ubaru disclosed that the new entrant into the nation’s telecommunication industry, the Global Satellite Mobile (GSM) tops the chart of software consumers in Nigeria.

He told the gathering that the existence of NITDA as it is today was the fruition of a journey that began early in the last administration under President Olusegun Obasanjo, adding that the Act establishing the Agency was recently approved in April 2007 before the exit of the former Nigerian leader.

Source: This Day Lagos