There is certainly a need to make a new ministry of information and communications technology (ICT) to harmonize the nation's ICT policies.

Dasuki Nakande, former minister of information and communications, and chairman of the SCAN-ICT committee established to evaluate the impact of information and communications technologies on the Nigerian economy, said Nigeria's ministry of information and communications gives more focus on handling the image of the country than driving the key policies within the ICT sector.

SCAN-ICT task team was set up by the National Information Technologies Development Agency (NITDA) to measure impact and development of the nation's ICT sector.

Scan-ICT is definitely an initiative launched by the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and also the Government of Finland to make accessible high quality information on ICT activities in Africa, which will make an enabling atmosphere for the assemblage of ICT indicators, to be part of the actions of National Statistical Offices.

Speaking at the national stakeholders' workshop on SCAN-ICT Nigeria on Wednesday in Abuja, he called for the harmonization of the functions and roles of the various ICT-based agencies within the country.

"The committee (SCAN-ICT) will advise government and our suggestions are going to be captured into the overall national policy on ICT; and our position is that at the end, we hope to have a ministry of ICT. We'll continue to push until it gets a hearing and someone acts on it," Mr. Nakande said.

"One committee was setup by the former president Olusegun Obasanjo administration. The report of the committee was submitted in 2008, but up till now it's not seen light of the day. We will continue to push because we believe ICT will be the driver for all other government policies simply because of the way the globe is going," the former minister said.