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The Management of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) says it will be in charge of coordinating the harmonisation of Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) related services in the country.
Dr Isa Pantami, the Director-General, NITDA, in a statement said that this was in line with resolutions reached at a recent meeting held at the Office of the Acting President.
The high level meeting was chaired by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on ICT, Mr Olanrewaju Osibona.
It was attended by the Comptroller-General, Nigeria Immigration Service, the Director-General, National Identity Management Commission and the Director-General of NITDA.
Pantami said that the meeting was convened to resolve the challenges of lack of control and central regulation of the PKI services currently delivered by government establishments.
He said part of the resolutions was that NITDA would take ownership, administration and regulation of the National PKI by ensuring full use and benefits of the associated PKI-as-a-Service (PaaS).
This includes the issuance of Document Signer Certificates, the management of the Public Key Directory (PKD) via the Nigerian Country Signing Certificate Authority (CSCA) Master-list.
“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.
“To this end, 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 is to collaborate with all stakeholders to ensure that Nigerians benefit from the use of information technology to enhance and simplify their daily activities, especially service delivery by government and other institutions,’’ Pantami said.
He said that in line with the Federal Government’s initiative on Digital Economy, it would enhance use of digital certificates to authenticate documents for Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) Certificates, Tax Clearance Certificates and other legal documents.
According to him, all IT procurements by MDAs as directed by FEC should to seek IT project approval from NITDA in order to avoid past experiences of huge losses incurred through multiple or conflicting projects.
Other resolutions are that 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 toward a Digital Economy.
NITDA is an Agency under the Federal Ministry of Communications created in April 2001 to implement the Nigerian Information Technology Policy and coordinate general IT development and regulation in the country.
The Act establishing it mandates that it creates a framework for the planning, research, development, standardisation, application, coordination, monitoring, evaluation and regulation of Information Technology practices, activities and systems in Nigeria.
NITDA also renders advisory services in all information technology matters to the public and private sectors.