… Coordinates PKI for Nigeria
By Steve Agbota
The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has said that all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) as well as other ICT organisations in the country should seek IT project approval from the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), in order to avoid past experiences of huge losses incurred through multiple or conflicting projects.
The directive also entails the harmonisation of public key infrastructure-related projects in Nigeria.
NITDA is an agency under the Federal Ministry of Communications created in April 2001 to implement the Nigerian Information Technology Policy and co-ordinate general IT development and regulation in the country.
NITDA’s Director-General, Dr. Isa Pantami, said, “This is in line with one of the resolutions reached by a recent high-level meeting held at the Office of the Acting President, Presidential Villa, chaired by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on ICT and attended by the Comptroller-General, Nigeria Immigration Service, the Director-General, National Identity Management Commission, and the Director-General, NITDA.
“The meeting was convened to resolve the challenges of lack of control and central regulation of the PKI services currently delivered by government establishments mandated,” he said.
Pantami stated that NITDA would take over ownership, administration and regulation of the national PKI, ensuring full use and benefits of the associated PKI-as-a-Service (PaaS), including the issuance of Document Signer Certificates, the management of the Public Key Directory (PKD) via the Nigerian Country Signing Certificate Authority (CSCA) Master-list.
“For PKI services, in line with the Federal Government’s initiative on digital economy, will further enhance use of digital certificates to authenticate documents, e.g. Corporate Affairs Commission certificates, tax clearance certificates and other legal documents.
“The Office of the Vice President is responsible for coordinating the harmonisation initiative, as part of its effort to move the nation on a path towards a Digital Economy,” he said.
The harmonisation process would include NITDA’s inauguration of a National Stakeholders’ Harmonisation Committee, bringing together all stakeholders in the industry, to recommend the best model for PKI infrastructure in the country.
He added that all sector-based regulators would be contacted by the agency, to provide information on current efforts related to PKI in their various sectors. This would include MDAs that require some form of PKI services to carry out their statutory functions in a digital environment.
“Our desire as an agency is to collaborate with all stakeholders to ensure that Nigerians benefit from the use of IT to enhance and simplify their daily activities, especially service delivery by government and other institutions”.