By Mohammed Mohammed
The Federal Government in conjunction with South Korea Government, through the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has said 1376 Civil Servants from 48 Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) were trained in various aspects of e-governance framework and processes between November 2020 to December 2021.
The roll out of the capacity development expectedly equipped the federal government staff as part of the ongoing robust reform momentum being driven by the Office of the Head of Service (HoS), Dr. Folashade Yemi-Esan, for optimal service delivery.
Speaking at the close of the service-wide capacity-building programme on e-government carried out in collaboration with South Korea, recently in Abuja, the Director General of NITDA, Mallam Kashifu Inuwa, acknowledged that digital technologies have brought about unprecedented opportunities to drive efficiencies, enable automation and change on how society interacts and engages in all facets of life.
The pace of change, according to him, is advancing even as citizens expectations are growing globally, therefore governments need to transform their operations faster, more accessible, transparent, and accountable template.
Apart from aligning to the global trend to move to e-governance, countries need a clear and defined agenda and supporting process to drive change leveraging on technology.
According to him, under the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof. Ibrahim Pantami, Nigeria has a clear agenda in National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS) to achieve change and leverage technology in building a vibrant digital economy.
To achieve this vibrant digital economy, there is a dire need to build the capacity of civil servants that will drive and provide services to citizens and implement the e-government masterplan.
Consequently, as part of the directive of President Muhammadu Buhari, during the official unveiling of the NDEPS in 2019, the center’s sole mandate is to provide the capacity-building component of e-Government Masterplan implementation for civil servants across the MDAs.
Subsequently, in December 2019, the Minister, inaugurated a 10-man governing committee to oversee the affairs of the e-government training center.
The membership of the committee comprises staff from the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Galaxy Backbone Ltd (GBB), Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC), and Public Service Institute of Nigeria (PSIN).
The committee engaged 16-Korean trained public servants as resource persons to train the trainers.
As part of its plans for 2022, the center is targeting to train more civil servants, commencing executive capacity building for top-level decisions and policymakers such as permanent secretaries, CEOs of parastatals, and legislative members.