The Nigerian government has started making moves to seriously imbibe the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) into its operations at all levels, saying that it has realised that one of the ways to reverse cases of huge unemployment, corruption, crime, low internally-generated revenue (IGR) and leakages in government revenue, among other issues is to use ICT to drive government’s internal processes and service delivery to its citizens and other stakeholders.
Electronic government or “e-Government” constitutes the use of ICT in governance to provide public services, improve managerial effectiveness and promote democratic values, as well as provide a regulatory framework that facilitates information dissemination.
Governments around the world use ICT for the exchange of information with citizens and businesses on topics such as tax compliance, public utility services, as well as vehicle and voting registration. Often, the introduction of e-government services creates a more customer-friendly culture.
At the Nigeria e-government conference organised by Digiserve Network Services in Lagos on Thursday, October 24, 2019, Umar Garba Danbatta, executive vice-chairman, Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) said that government had realised that ICT has the capacity to enhance efficiency and convenience in the delivery of government services.
Danbatta who was represented by Henry Nkemadu, Director, Public Affairs, NCC, in his speech said that the theme of the conference, “e-Government: Powering Governance with Information and Communications Technologies (ICT)”, is apt, as it presents another unique opportunity for government agencies and parastatals to look inwards and re-examine Nigeria’s e-government initiatives within the broad context of the global trend where ICT had become a driving force for all sectors across economies around the world.
A United Nations’ report titled: Gearing E-Government to Support Transformation towards Sustainable and Resilient Societies, noted that since 2014, all 193 UN Member States, including Nigeria, had been delivering some form of an online presence. Not only this, the report particularly draws a positive correlation between the level of e-government status achieved by a country and the successes being recorded in the area of advancing each of the 17 targets in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030.
Also, in a February 2019 report titled: Digital Government and Open Data Readiness Assessment, the World Bank noted that governments around the world are continually facing the challenges of improving the access to and the quality of public services that they deliver to citizens and businesses. The report further stated that governments do these more efficiently and with lower costs and that for many years “e-Government” has been expected to be a major contributor to meeting these challenges.
The World Bank report, however, pointed out that, while some countries are grappling with implementing their e-government strategies, others that had been seen as some of the leaders in e-Government have now embarked on the next stage of their service transformation journey – often referred to as “Digital Government”.
According to Danbatta, “In Nigeria, the deliberate decision to deploy ICT for public service delivery is, in part, traceable to the formulation of the Nigerian National Telecommunications Policy in 2000. The policy seeks to make Nigeria an ICT-driven country in Africa and a key player in the information society and also use IT for education; creation of wealth; poverty eradication; job creation; governance; health; and agriculture.”
“Through the policy, the Federal Government expressly announced the initiative of the government to deepen its digital and online presence to enhance its operation of the government in providing public services in a transparent, effective and efficient means,” he said.
Also speaking during the panel session, Gbenga Adebayo, president, Association of Licensed Telecommunications Companies (ALTON) prompted the government to keep up with its plans to enhance public services by going digital, saying that it is also as important to ensure that the ICT industry is protected and encouraged to grow.
Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Communications was recently renamed to become the ‘Federal Ministry of Communication and Digital Economy’ as part of a new strategy to make the ministry reflect the dynamics of technology industry and achieve government’s policy thrust to enable a digital economy.
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