Need for national ICT policy

Abstract

Information and Communication Technology (ICT), a merger of two technologies; Information Technology (IT) and Communication Technology (CT) to form Information and Communication Technology (ICT) made it possible for combined information processing and communication. Email, a consequence of ICT is one of the fastest means of communication worldwide. ICT systems have been designed that automate business processes in e-commerce, e-library, e-research, e-finance and e-governance making them more efficient and cost effective by eliminating errors incurred through the use of manual systems. ICT is complex thus, the need for the National ICT Policy for managing ICT resources. The lack of an ICT policy has caused institutions to suffer huge financial losses due to haphazard planning of ICT systems resulting in poorly designed and implemented ICT systems that hardly meet the institutions objectives. A number of countries have geared their National ICT policies towards accelerated national development by incorporating their National ICT policies into the National Development Plan. The Corporate ICT Policy takes cognisance of the corporate vision, mission, core values, core business, and aims at improving corporate business processes for efficient and cost effective service delivery to the clients, and to identify new business opportunities to diversify the revenue base and thus increase profits. This paper briefly outlines issues critical to ICT management and proposes the National ICT Policy to address the issues and to incorporate the National ICT Policy into the National Development Plan for rapid national development.