The Executive Director, Operations at the Digital-SENSE Africa (DSA) , Mrs Nkemdilim Nweke has commended the Minister of Communications Technology (CommTech) for living up to her promise to seek stakeholders comments on the draft national policy on the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT).

Speaking at the weekend, she said that this approach was the first of its kind by the Ministry since was creation and should be commended, urging the Minister to extend the comment period by one week due to the period lost to the fuel subsidy removal protest in the country.

According to her, several stakeholders’ organisations already are warming up to ensure inputs from their various end to ensure their comments are included, but  the extension of the deadline would really boost the quality of inputs.

“Fulfilling this promise by the minister means there is hope for the sector and Nigerians generally,” she said.

Mrs Nweke also urged stakeholders to concentrate on topics capable of moving the ICT sector forward, noting that every input made at this time would help reposition the ministry especially as the stakeholders work towards actualising the converged ICT regulation for the sector at large.

She also said that with the calling off of the strike by the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) on Monday, lots of issues were awaiting professionals in the industry, whose holidays period was extended immediately after the Christmas and New Year by the strike declared by Labour in response to the Federal Government’s hike of pump prices from N65 to N140.

The DSA boss explained that with the suspension of strike, stakeholders definitely would need an extended little time to contribute meaningfully to the draft national ICT policy whose current deadline is next week Monday.

She noted that CommTech Minister might be working on schedule, but maintained the need to at least extend the comment period by one week, especially given that people’s access to the document could be limited during the strike that lasted for one week.

She recalled that Ministry of Communications Technology, had last week Monday unveiled the draft National Information and Communications Technology (ICT) policy document on its website for comments by stakeholders in the country.

The draft policy was uploaded Monday morning in fulfillment of pledge by CommTech Minister, Mrs. Omobola Johnson on the Ministry’s website at http://commtech.gov.ng and the Ministry’s Blog at http://blog.commtech.gov.ng.