Mallam Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, the Director-General of National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), has received Mr. Karl Toriola the newly appointed MTN Nigeria’s Chief Executive Officer, at NITDA’s corporate headquarters in Abuja.
Mr Toriola visited the Agency on Thursday to get acquainted with the activities of NITDA and to further strengthen the already existing partnership between the agency and his NITDA.
While addressing the team, Mallam Abdullahi noted that MTN has immensely supported the agency in achieving some of its set goals.
He said it was therefore imperative to “find ways we can work hand in hand in terms of regulations and make sure what we do is in the best interest of the public.”
“The regulation we do is not to discourage innovation or to limit you, rather our regulations are developmental regulations which help to unlock opportunities and to also create an enabling environment for you and others players”, he added.
NITDA boss further stated that NITDA’s regulations are established in two ways; either the Agency decides on set regulations or they sit with the industry players to agree on what kind of regulations can be created.
He said that human capital development is among the key areas NITDA is focusing on “as we need to train our people to understand the new technologies before we develop and use it.”
In this regard, the DG NITDA urged MTN to collaborate with the Agency to train as many individuals as possible.
“In terms of infrastructure, we have done a lot in that aspect as we have provided infrastructure to underserved and unserved communities because you need to have the infrastructure to be able to connect to the service. As business people, I urge you to create an avenue where people are easily and freely connected to the service as it will create more users and in turn generate more funds”, Mallam Abdullahi said.
DG NITDA lauded MTN for doing its best in the area of compliance and commended the company for the prompt payment of its levies.
Speaking at the rendezvous earlier, Mr Toriola asserted that the MTN Nigeria Privacy and Data Protection service has been developed and adopted by the board.
He said, “It has been deployed across our business and with constant engagement with NITDA officials who have provided us with necessary support and guidance, we have carried out an audit of our privacy data compliance practices with the Nigerian Data Protection Regulations requirements.”
He explained that the data breach management has been developed and deployed adding that the company has embarked on a programme that will promote local content in Nigeria which includes ecosystem support to provide ICT innovation, STEM to accelerate local innovation.
Featured Image: Mr. Karl Toriola the newly appointed MTN Nigeria’s Chief Executive Officer (Left), Mallam Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, the Director-General NITDA, (Right)
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