In continuation of the implementation of the e-Government Master Plan and the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy through the Strategic Roadmap and Action Plan (SRAP 2021-2024) of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), the Agency has commenced the 2022 eGovernment Service-Wide Capacity Building Progamme aimed at equipping public servants in the nation with the necessary skills needed for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) and the future of work.
The event marking the commencement of the capacity building took place at the eGovernnment Training Centre (eGTC), PSIN, Kubwa, Abuja, where the Batch A of the Professional programme would be taken place.
The 2022 edition of the capacity building programme which would be taken place in at least one state per geopolitical zone is comprise of Executive Course I, Executive II and Professional Programme.
Speaking on the role of NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa, Agency Director General, stated that because of the philosophy of digital inclusion, it is impossible to stay in the comfort of Abuja and drive technology or digital skills and expect it to get to the rural areas which he said was important to the reason why the centre was created in the first place.
Inuwa who was represented by the Director, Research and Development, Agu Collins Agu maintained that “it is because technology is dynamic which makes upskilling and reskilling come into play especially for federal public servants that will be driving all government digital transformation.”
The Managing Director Galaxybone Limited and the Co chairman e-GTC Governing Board, Mohammed Bello Abubakar while giving an update on the performance of the e-GTC, he said in 2020, the number of batches implemented were 10 but in 2021 they were 12.
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“In 2020 the number of public servants trained were 489 and 890 in 2021, adding that the number of effective training days were 26 and 48 in 2020 and 2021 respectively. The number of effective training hours were 208 in 2020 and 384 in 2021.
“If you look at the number of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) the centre was able to pitch, there were 25 in 2020 and in 2021 there were 41. The number of Public servants invited in 2020 were 765 and 1,220 in 2021”, said the Prof Abubakar.
The Director Centre, Suleiman Mohammed, while giving the training plan for the year mentioned that, the Executive Course I, was included so as to train Chief Executive Officers (CEO) of Agencies and Parastatal of the government.
He said “for the Executive Course I, which we are starting in Abuja is targeting the CEOs of Federal government Agency and parastatals, we intended to have nine batches within the year, two in a month fortnightly, in each batch we will have 20 CEO’s making it a total of 180 CEO’s to be trained and the training is just a day’s programme.
“We have the Executive Course II which targets public servants at the Directorate cadre and in each batch we are inviting 100 participants and we intend to have 18 batches making a total of 1,800 participants.
“For the Professional course which we are having with you now, we are targeting 100 participants and we are planning for 13 batches making it 1,300 participants”.
“We started in 2020 and in that year we did little, in 2021 we did much but in 2022 we have become more ambitious as we want to have our tentacles outside the boundaries of Abuja,” Mohammed noted.
He said the Agency will be replicating Executive Course I and Executive II which it has started in Abuja across the six geopolitical zones.
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