Jimson Olufuye suggests that the federal government should lead Nigeria’s input into the review of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)+20 framework, aiming to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

Mr Olufuye, an ICT expert, said in Abuja on Tuesday that only South Africa out of 54 African countries had submitted its report on the WSIS review.

Mr. Olufuye urged the federal government to lead the review of the WSIS+20 framework in a multi-stakeholder platform to ensure that Nigeria’s views are part of the final outcome.

The WSIS+20 framework is being reviewed 20 years after its establishment by the UN General Assembly.

Mr Olufuye is one of eleven selected members of the WSIS+20 Informal Multi-stakeholder Sounding Board, tasked with reviewing its achievements worldwide.

WSIS is a two-phase UN-sponsored summit on the information society that took place in 2003, leading to the Geneva Declarations, and in 2005 with the Tunis Agenda.

The core objective of WSIS was to bridge the global digital divide between developed and developing countries by increasing people-centered connectivity and ensuring an inclusive information society.

Mr Olufuye said the WSIS captured several action lines, including the role of all stakeholders in promoting ICT for development, developing ICT infrastructure, and capacity building, among others.

He stated that although Nigeria was making progress in the growth of the ICT sector in areas such as data protection, these efforts were not properly documented within the WSIS framework due to poor national-level coordination.

Mr Olufuye also stated that it was unfortunate that the nation’s broadband penetration was around 49 percent. According to him, the global internet penetration standard is 60 per cent, and Africa has fallen way behind the average.

The cumulative internet penetration in Africa stands at 39 per cent.

“If we are serious about achieving the SDGs, we need to connect our people because the global goal is connectivity, which WSIS targets,” he said.

Mr Olufuye said IMSB members would coordinate achievements of the WSIS+20 across countries for approval by the UN General Assembly in December 2025.

“The UN General Assembly mandated two people, the Ambassador of Kenya and the Ambassador of Albania, Southeast Europe, to facilitate the review of 20 years of WSIS. They decided to constitute this IMSB to help them ensure that they do not leave any stakeholder’s position behind.

“We are to help coordinate views concerning the review so that by December, there will be no objections from heads of state and governments around the world regarding its approval,” he said.

Other members of the IMSB were drawn from Ecuador, Australia, India, China, the U.S., Egypt, Mexico, Czechia, and Germany.

(NAN)