Information and Communications Technology

While the long-term objective capacity building in ICT is to harness the full spectrum of ICT potential for economic growth and poverty eradication, including the development of human resources, democratisation and good governance on a sustainable basis, its specific objectives include the following

• Develop a legislative framework and build institutional capacity.
• Establish a national ICT strategy responsive to national development goals.
• Support ICT professionals of regional and federal institutions by providing them with adequate information and infrastructure.
• Facilitate sharing and dissemination of information between civil, private and public service institutions to improve efficiency and transparency.
• Facilitate citizens' access to public domain information contents of public institutions.
• Create the groundwork for research and development in such areas as contents and applications, and high tech ICT industry growth.
• Promote community-based development of contents, services and applications.
• Interconnect government agencies/institutions.
• Formulate ICT human resources development strategy.
• Strengthen ICT institutions by providing education and training.
• Introduce new ICT training and education programmes at regional
• universities and teacher training colleges.
• Systematise digital contents to enable ICT-based civil and public services
• delivery and support decision-making process.
• Initiate ICT-assisted service delivery in health, education, and for rural development.
• Organise and manage electronic information resources in all sectors and institutions and make them available at global, national, regional and local levels.
• Create a critical mass of ICT- skilled labour force.
• Mobilise community knowledge and resources to create a gateway to diverse information resources within the country and facilitate the community to access and interact with national and global information infrastructure, resources and systems.
• Define strategies for the active participation of the private sector in the development and utilisation of ICT.
• Incorporate gender information needs and the interests of women in all information and communication programmes.
• Promote women's access to information, especially in rural areas, so as to reduce the gender information gap.

In general, the need for building ICT capacity is driven by the country's overall development goals, but particularly the poverty reduction strategy as well as good governance and democratisation. Capacity building will have a pivotal role in the country's socio-economic development and poverty reduction strategy.