NAN-H-74
Training
By Angela Atabo
Abuja, July 18, 2017 (NAN) The Minister of Communications, Mr Adebayo Shittu on Tuesday said over 22,000 civil servants in various Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) had been trained in ICT by the South Korean government.
Shittu said this at the 6th E-Government Summit 2017 organised by the E-Payment Providers Association of Nigeria (E-PAN) titled: “E-Government Catalyst for Economic Recovery and Sustainable Development’’ in Abuja.
He said that the Nigerian government in collaboration with Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) embarked on capacity building for the civil servants since 2012 in ICT.
“I must commend KOICA for spending well over a billion naira for Nigeria both in the building of infrastructure and in training within Nigeria and in South Korea.
“This has boasted Nigeria’s ICT platform and has given more edge in delivering e-government services to Nigerians.
“Nigeria has risen in the 2016 UN global e-government development index from 162th position to 143th, showing an upward improvement consistently since 2012.
Shittu said that more than 1000 were also trained in different e-government services in 2016 by the South Korean government.
He said that the ministry had also embarked on many e-government initiatives including the Open Data Portal, Government Contact Centre, and Government Services Portal among others leading to increase leverage on ICT.
“The ministry will continue to implement policies that will promote the successes of e-government and its master plan for effective service delivery to Nigerians.’’
Shittu said that the summit was timely because it would address the 2016 UN’s aid government survey’s advice to Nigeria to explore practical solutions for data generation and analysis.
He said that the deliverables of the summit would help the Nigerian government to take advantage of the potential in big data and big data analysis.
The Accountant-General of the Federation, Mr Ahmed Idris, who was represented by Mr Sylva Okolie-Aboh, the Deputy Director/Coordinator Treasury Single Account/e-collection said relevant government agencies were working toward e-procurement for all government contracts.
Idris said that the May 2017 order by the acting President Prof.Yemi Osinbajo on the promotion of transparency and efficiency in the business environment was a call to deepen e-governance.
He said that it encompassed the three phases of e-governance as articulated by the UN publication, interaction and transaction.
“When completed, it will make the procurement process more transparent and give all qualified and interested citizens and companies’ equal opportunity and access to government contracts.’’
He said that with the support of local ICT vendors and experts, Nigerians stood at the frontline of the march toward e-government in the country.
He urged the E-PAN to join the Federal Government in its quest to advance e-governance to further bridge the government-citizen divide and engender transparency and accountability.
Ms Onajite Regha, the Executive Secretary of E-PAN said that e-government would enable the government to improve its processes of service delivery when it was ready to utilise e-government initiatives in its day to day activities.
Regha said that it would also empower citizens in terms of developing direct participation in service delivery and help them to receive services more easily and timely.
She said that e-government would improve the quality of service in government institutions and stimulate trade and industry in the public sector. (NAN)
ATAB/GY
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Edited by Grace Yussuf