NITDA tasks stakeholders on efficient Service Level Agreement for IT contracts
By Ogaga Ariemu
The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), has tasked stakeholders on how to develop efficient Service Level Agreement(SLA) for better service delivery in Government’s Information Technology(IT) contracts.
The Director General of the agency, Mr Kashifu Inuwa, disclosed this on Thursday at the Consumer Protection Forum in Abuja for consumers and IT service providers to share ideas and challenges confronting the IT industry and the way forward.
Represented by the Acting Director Guidelines, Standards and Frameworks Department of the agency, Mr Oladejo Olawumi, Inuwa said that the agency as the IT regulator in the country, was implementing one of its Strategic pillars which was Developmental Regulation.
He said that with the growth of the IT sector in 2020 and 2021, consumer protection was very important.
“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 SLA into Government Information Technology Contracts.
“We are here to see why the lack of warranty and after sales service agreements on our IT products and service purchases have cost us so much, and also to see why a good contract should have an SLA to make provisions for downtime, warranty and after sales support.
“We intend to develop the culture of the use and compliance to SLA guidelines when implementing government IT contracts,” he said.
The DG encouraged Ministries, Departments and Agencies to continue to embrace the NITDA IT Clearance as a way of cutting cost on IT contracts.
Mr Babatunde Bamigboye, while speaking on ‘Ensuring Sustainability in IT Projects through SLA,’ defined SLA as any contract or understanding that spells out the obligations of a service provider and the standards required in the performance of those obligations.
According to Bamigboye, SLA is important in IT transactions because the outcomes expected from each transaction may vary with the level of service rendered under the transaction.
He mentioned that the general formalities of IT contracts included mutual consent, lawful Agreement,acceptance, consideration, confidentiality, among other conditions.
The theme of the meeting was “Inculcating the Culture of Service Level Agreement In Government Information Technology Contracts.”
