His first appointment in public service as Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) plunged him right into the middle of a complex, disorganised, monolithic and corrupt sector, grappling with the lacuna of professionalism and leadership. Again, not many gave him a chance.

Unprofessionalism and a total deviation from lawful standards had become so common place, nobody expected the much needed remedy would come in the form of an unassuming, humble and “new” young man. But he took the Agency, sector and the nation by surprise and within months, repositioned the Agency in every ramification and set it on a steady course of exemplary success. NITDA has continued to thrive on the solid foundations laid by Professor Pantami.

His unprecedented success at NITDA earned him a call to higher duty and two years eleven months later, President Muhammadu Buhari (GCFR) entrusted him with the task of fixing the entire sector and he took the oath of office as the Honourable Minister of Communications on 21st August 2019.

https://techeconomy.ng/2019/08/dr-isa-pantami-is-new-minister-of-communications-as-predicted-by-techeconomy-ng/

As usual, he hit the ground running and by 17th October, less than two months later, he had secured Presidential approval re-designating the Ministry to the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, thereby, making history as Nigeria’s first ever Digital Economy Minister, thus, resetting and reversing the hitherto, dire fortunes of the technology sector.

The rest, as they say is history. A history of unprecedented and unparalleled successes at personal, national, continental and global levels.

The impact of his leadership resonates in every sector of the economy and beyond the shores of Nigeria. Under his leadership and guidance, the sector has maintained a steady lead since 2020 in contributing to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), with the latest figure at a staggering and unprecedented 18.44%.

https://techeconomy.ng/2022/08/pantami-excited-as-ict-contributes-18-44-to-nigerias-gdp/

Two of the most strategic developmental documents in Nigeria’s modern history –the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS) and the Nigerian National Broadband Plan  are to his credit, nineteen national policies developed and in full effect, he established and developed the first- of- its- kind in Africa National Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (NCAIR), sustained digital capacity building programmes for citizens, numerous  International partnerships and collaborations, nationwide interventions in institutions of learning to promote research and innovation in IT.

Led the vanguard for the enactment and implementation of the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation and the subsequent establishment of the Bureau, established over a thousand IT Centers across the country, laid the foundation for a solid national data base through the national identity project, supervised the successful trial, auction and launch of 5G and has commissioned citizen-impactful projects and initiatives more than any public servant in present day Nigeria.

The Nigeria Startup Act (NSA) just recently assented to, by the President is a huge win that has opened a new chapter of an innovative playground with limitless opportunities for the great potential that abounds in the country.

The NSA will drive indigenous innovation in quantum leaps, it will support the current gospel of proven skills over paper qualifications, create jobs, engage citizens meaningfully thereby, reducing crime – the benefits are endless.

Through the discharge of his duties, Professor Pantami has directly fulfilled, or provided the platform, for the fulfillment of the President’s focal agenda of anti-corruption, Security and Economic recovery. As the adage goes, “a gold fish has no hiding place”.

Professor Pantami’s consistency, professionalism, discipline, integrity, loyalty, dedication to duty, patriotism and leadership, has drawn global aclaim to his enigmatic personality. In the six short years he has been in the public eye, the Professor of Cyber security has  earned some of the most coveted spots in the global digital economy sector.

He is the first and only African currently holding the status of the Fellowship of the Chartered Institute of Information Security (CIISec),  a  Fellow of the British Chartered Institute for IT (British Computer Society), a Chartered IT Expert, Chartered Cyber security professional, Chartered Computer Scientist, Fellow of the Nigeria Computer Society, Fellow Computer Registration Council of Nigeria, Fellow Institute of Information Management, Fellow African School of International Relations and Diplomacy, current chairman of the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) Forum 2022, recipient of professional, leadership and excellence awards too numerous to count including the prestigious Award for Digital Innovation which he recently clinched at the Nigeria Excellence in Public Service Awards.

In a special message on the eve of Professor Pantami’s ascension to the golden fifth floor, Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari (GCFR), wrote “Professor Pantami is one of the most resourceful, innovative and effective public officials that I have in this administration. His depth of knowledge of complex issues is amazing and remarkable and his loyalty and dedication are worthy of emulation. The appointment of Pantami is one of the best choices I have made because he has added tremendous value to good governance”.

As a man, he embodies a life of total surrender to God, as a boss firm, disciplined and principled, as a father kind and protective, as a leader just and law abiding, as a mentor inspiring and practical. Professor Pantami has etched his name in the annals of history and will always be celebrated for his historic milestones.

He has consistently lent irrefutable credence to the oath of service he took and the stand he took when he declared “I have deliberately put all my eggs in one basket against popular opinion and this ensures my undivided attention and focus to ensure they hatch successfully”.

Uwa Suleiman is Spokesperson to the Honourable Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Nigeria.

Prof. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, the minister of Communications and Digital Economy,  disclosed this in Abuja during the Champion Day and Closing of 2021 Service Wide Capacity Building program on e-Government.

According to the Minister, “the target of the Federal Government is to make sure that by 2030, we achieve a paperless government where emerging technologies like Blockchain that has data integrity and many more is guaranteed.

Prof Pantami maintained that the achievement of paperless government is very possible because government is desirous of digitizing its processes.

He however posited that technology cannot do it alone; “we must ensure that we train ourselves so that we manage the technology effectively for the betterment of our country.

The Minister also revealed that Federal Government has spent a total of N152 billion on digitalization in 2021. The amount, he said, was “a quantum leap from the N9 billion spent in 2019 and 2020.”

He stated that the amount constitutes the total sum approved by National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) for the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), Immigration, and Customs among other agencies of government for the 2021 fiscal year.

He noted that the Federal Government is committed to the implementation of digitizing its processes for effective service delivery.  “To show us the level of implementation of the government’s digital services in the country, from January to December 2021, NITDA, on behalf of the government, has approved the execution of 499 projects. However, the approved projects include the backlog of 2020 and 2019,” he noted.

In her goodwill message, the Head of Service Civil of Federation, (HoSCF) Dr Folashade Yemi-Esan disclosed that many Ministries, Departments, and Agencies of government are on the verge to digitalize their processes. She assured that by the end of the year, many successes would have been recorded in the nation’s drive to digitalization.

While commending the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy and its parastatals for the support in ensuring that processes at the Office of Head of Service for the Federation is digitalize, she noted that “the gestures would go a long way in assisting us to achieve our own dream.

Dr Yemi-Esan thanked NITDA for the role it is playing to get the Office of Head of Service of the Federation a platform that would enhance digitalization of government processes.

“I want to thank NITDA because we have been able to work together to get a platform the HoSCF would use for digitalization and right now we are working on approval for the platform,” she stated.

While describing the training as very apt because of all the technologies the government is putting in place, Dr Yemi-Esan urged the trainees to ensure that they replicate what they have learnt in their respective MDAs by training the other staff.

Meanwhile, the NITDA Director-General who also doubled as the Council’s Chairman, e-Government Training Centre, Kashifu Inuwa, CCIE, said the Federal Government had trained 1,376 civil servants from 48 ministries, departments and agencies between November 2020 and December 2021 in the use of ICT.

He said the capacity building programme for civil servants is part of the federal government’s e-Government Master Plan aimed at digitizing every government process in all ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs).

The NITDA boss recalled that the journey started in November 2019 when the President, Muhammadu Buhari directed that the Centre should be used to build the capacity of the federal civil servant.

While acknowledging the civil servant as the engine room of the government, Inuwa maintained that if the government wishes to transform, the civil servants need to be transformed first. He added that transformation is not just about technology, we need the people that will operate the technology, if we don’t have the people or a proper process in place, we would not have value from the technology.

He stated further that the essence of e-Government tools is for convenient and cost saving. We all see what happened during the COVID-19, with technology we were able to continue our activities while under the lockdown.

The project is part of government’s efforts to give concrete expression to the underlining principles and fundamental philosophy of the emergent digital culture in Nigeria, particularly Item No. 2 of the eight pillars of the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS) 2020-2030.

Governor Adegboyega Oyetola of Osun State, is also expected at the event as a Special Guest of Honour.

According to a statement signed by Dr. Ikechukwu Adinde, director, Public Affairs at the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC), the Digital Nigeria Centre, hitherto known as School Knowledge Centre (SNC), targets students and youths for skills acquisition in order to increase Information and Communication Technology (ICT) literacy among school teachers and students; provide a platform for accessing online educational resources; equip students with ICT skills; facilitate ICT adoption in teaching and learning; and increase pass rate in mathematics, English language and other science subjects.

This project, the first to be commissioned in Osun State since the modification of the project as DNC, is located at the Ijesa Muslim Grammar School, Ilesa.

The four components of the Digital Nigeria Centre include ICT Tool component (made up of 40 desktop computers with embedded operating systems, server, printer, remote-controlled projector, high resolution scanner, and e-learning software). Another component is the Power structure, consisting of an inverter that comes with its charger, solar panels, batteries and automatic changeover.

There is also a Connectivity component, made up of routers, switches, firewall for network protection, modem, fibre/microwave radio or VSAT and bandwidth for internet connectivity. Finally, there is a non-ICT component constitutive of the furniture, cabinet, cooling systems, and allied appliances.

The DNC is a project of the Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF), an arm of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), established under the Nigerian Communications Act (NCA) 2003 with the overarching objective to carry out the Commission’s statutory mandate of expanding the frontiers of universal access and universal service by ensuring service provision to unserved and under-served areas of the Nigerian economy.

Therefore, as mandated by NCA 2003, the USPF promotes the widespread availability and usage of network and application services throughout Nigeria by encouraging the installation of network facilities and the provision of network services and applications services to institutions, particularly in unserved and underserved areas and for underserved groups within the community.

Since inception in 2006, the USPF under NCC supervision and directive of the Minister, has implemented series of programmes and projects that promote ICT inclusion and adoption to mainstream accessibility to communication services for citizens and position Nigeria for global competitiveness in the emergent digital culture.