NITDA Strengthens Service Level Agreements To Protect IT Consumers

The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has strengthened Service Level Agreements (SLA) to address challenges in service delivery in the IT sector, especially to protect consumer rights on products and services.

The director general of NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa, said this in a statement, while welcoming stakeholders to this year’s Consumer Protection Forum organized by the agency in Abuja yesterday. He said the agency through the forum seeks to familiarize stakeholders and consumer with the SLA guidelines to ensure efficient and effective delivery of IT products and services.

The forum is a platform through which NITDA seeks to bring the consumers and vendors of IT products and services together in order to address areas of challenges in service delivery. It is also an avenue to create awareness of Consumer rights on IT products.

The NITDA boss said the task is taken under its mandate of regulation of the IT sector in Nigeria and in furtherance of its Developmental Regulation pillar, which is one of its seven strategic pillars.

“This is more so because of the significant role IT has played in this economy in recent years and the more critical need for the Digital Economy to provide the much needed succor from the prevailing global economic downturn.

“These times are therefore when we need to ensure that there is a viable enabling environment for the Digital Economy to thrive, not just by having innovations in emerging technologies, but ensuring players in the industry thrive under a mutually cohesive environment, hence the need for Service Level Agreements,” he said.

He noted that two weeks ago NITDA had a very successful international conference- the Digital Nigeria International Conference, where the need to pull down barriers which stifle innovation in the Digital Economy, was highly recommended. “The Consumer Protection Forum is a platform to identify such barriers,” he added.

“At previous forums we have been addressing general IT related issues between consumers and service providers. We are now adopting a new approach of resolving specific issues that affect the sector.

“Today, we are addressing a critical issue which emanated from our past consumer protection forum and subsequent complaints within the industry as a result of which NITDA has developed a Guideline for the Introduction of Service Level Agreements (SLA) in Government Information Technology Contracts.

“We intend to familiarize you with the Guidelines today through our experienced resource persons and we believe this will mark the beginning of compliance to better service delivery in the sector,” he added.