The National Information Technology Agency (NITA), is holding a brainstorming ICT stakeholder conference to review the draft content of two Legislative Instruments (LIs) for the NITA Act, 2008 (Act 771) and the Electronic Transactions Act, 2008 (Act 772).
The two LI’s are currently being prepared to be put before Parliament, and the conference is meant to take the input of players in the ICT space to finetune the drafts.
The consultative conference will take place on Wednesday July 5 to 7, 2023 at the Kofi Annan Centre for Excellence (KACE), at 11am – 4:30pm each day.
Also Read: NITA to be enabler-oriented, not profit-oriented regulator – CTO
A statement from NITA said the two statutes, Act 771 and Act 772, are primary legislations whose corresponding operational subsidiary legal framework have not yet been passed, adding that the two proposed LI’s are critical for the effective operationalization
/implementation of the primary legislation.
“The combined legal ecosystem of the primary and the subsidiary legislation are critical for effective development of the Government digital ecosystem, and the private sector and non-governmental digital ecosystem,” the statements said. “These are also vital for the citizen digital ecosystem and change management orientations across the three ecosystems for policy goal attainment.”
According to NITA, the LIs are designed to provide the certainty of planning, assurance and support for innovation and the growth of digital entrepreneurs and digital products in a manner which assures the transformation impact realization as a product of digitalization.
The Director General of NITA, Richard Okyere-Fosu expressed how important this exercise is, not only to NITA and the government, but also to all players and consumers in the ICT sector, saying “NITA has existed for 15 years without these key legislative instruments (LIs), which are considered essential operational tools needed for NITA to function fully and effectively”.
He reiterated the importance of regulating ICT properly, highlighting the huge opportunities and benefits the nation will derive from the completion of the exercise.
The NITA Boss said, “This is a journey we started with our stakeholders and it is important to seek their inputs to make the LI industry-friendly and industry relevant”.
The statement said the consultative workshop is open to all stakeholders in the ICT ecosystem (professionals, businesses, lecturers, students, journalists, etc.).
Also Read: We are scratching our heads on how to regulate the digital space – NITA Official
