Information and Communication Technology (ICT) stakeholders and specialists have stressed the need for deployment of ICT to facilitate development and meaningful integration.
At
the 5th Technical Committee Meeting on the Computerization of ECOWAS
Institutions which began in Abuja on the 31st of October 2016, the stakeholders
and experts drawn from the region were also told to harness ideas and come up
with suggestions that will enhance development in all areas of economic and
socio-cultural life such as Agriculture, Health, Peace and Security, Education
etc.
A
final presentation and review of the regional Information Technology (IT)
policies and procedures for all community institutions, progress report on
community wide intranet Development & the ECOWAS Ecolink project as well as
actionable points from knowledge management experiences are expected to emerge
at the end of the meeting.
Addressing
participants at the meeting, the ECOWAS Commissioner for Telecommunication and
Information Technology, Dr Isaias Barreto da Rosa noted that the objectives of
the meeting places a heavy burden on members of the technical committee
regarding the onerous task of keeping abreast of modern trends in ICT as well
as ensuring that ICT tools are deployed timely and cost effectively in all the
Institutions and Agencies of ECOWAS Commission to facilitate development.
Stressing
that the ECOWAS IT policy is one of the key agenda of the meeting, the
Commissioner recalled that stakeholders have been working on preparation of
this instrument for the past 5 years: “we have been working on the preparation
of this document and after many challenges, we have finally reached the
deployment stage, which shall start right after this IT Technical Committee
meeting” He added
According
to him, the ECOWAS IT policy should clearly define the guiding policies for all
ECOWAS Institutions on IT services delivery, support and integration as well as
IT governance and IT capacity development.
After
expressing gratitude for participant’s attendance, the Commissioner challenged
the attendees on the need for gender balance in terms of representations. He
also raised pertinent questions regarding whether stakeholders have been able
to meet the objectives spelt out in the ICT masterplan and its implementation
so that progress can be made beyond the usual talk in creating a unified
communication system.
Speaking
very passionately but resolutely on the need to accomplish set objectives and
tasks bearing in mind that ICT is the key to and an engine of regional
integration, Commissioner Barreto submitted: “Alone we can go faster but
together we can indeed go further”
Earlier,
the Director, ECOWAS Computer Community Centre (CCC) Mr Osei-Tutu Agyeman Duah
spoke about the need to appreciate the significance of significance of an IT
drive world in efficiency and development. He made specific reference to the
United States (US) military where “cyber warriors” make great contributions
with about 6,000 soldiers sitting behind the computers without shooting a gun.
The
Technical Committee Meeting on Computerization of ECOWAS Institutions has in
its mandate, assistance in the development and periodic review of ECOWAS ICT
Master Plan that will enable the realization of ECOWAS Strategic goals while
ensuring the standardization of all ICT equipment and software in all
institutions, Agencies and Projects including the setting up of a common
framework in line with best practices for the delivery of ICT services and
solutions in all institutions, Agencies and Projects, among others.
