As the effects of the corona virus pandemic continues to bite hard, some of the government agencies in Nigeria have started to look inwards to create sustainable ecosystems to mitigate the impact of the lockdown and a post COVID 19 Nigeria.

One of such agencies is the National Information Technology Development Agency, NITDA saddled with the identification and development of local technology ecosystems for national growth.

Recently, the agency immediately the government pronounced the lockdown, constituted a 10-man committee named Tech4Covid.

According to the NITDA Director General Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi,  the objectives of Tech4Covid include identification of innovative solutions to address the pandemic; provision of enabling policies and incentives to cushion the impact; and building of massive digital skills to re-skill the region to leverage technology in different sectors.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately impacted SMEs around the world, Nigeria inclusive. Our interventions are to help lead the tech startups from crisis to recovery as well as support them to navigate today’s challenging business landscape,” he said.

Accordingly, he urged financial institutions across the country to increase lending access for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).

Asides Tech4covid, Abdullahi noted other innovative projects NITDA is saddled with to include; National Outsourcing Strategic Policy, Nigeria Data Protection Regulation, Reviewing of Framework and Guideline for the Use of Digital Platform by Federal Public Institutions, and the National Cyber Security Policy.