Nigeria Considers Standardised Websites for All Agencies for Enhanced Access and Security

The federal government is planning to have a standardised websites for all government institutions for easier access, security and virtual identity.

The Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr. Tijani Bosun stated this at the 6th Developments in government meeting held on Monday in Abuja.

Bosun said the country was in need of standardised websites for all government institutions.

“One of the biggest things that Nigerians complain about is the Nigerian government and the fact that it is not easy for them to access information on government service because the websites are not similar in nature because if you look from one ministry to another, the websites look totally different.

“But with this programme, we are harmonising the design so collectively. We are working together to come up with standardised websites of what government websites should look. And as we do this, it’s important, we carry all government IT (Information Technology) experts along because they are the ones who are going to implement it,” he explained.

He also noted that although the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has a guideline for it already, the ministry will work with the agency and interpret it in clear terms.

He added: “Though NITDA has something like that but it’s just a document that describes what your font should look like in text. The colours have been described in the document in text, the visuals described in text.

“It doesn’t work that way; people can’t actually understand it that way. So, this effort is to take the work that is being done to a new level.

“We are taking to the new level by saying let’s open it up and ensure that the people that we serve are actually part of the process for developing this new standard.

“And we are just going to develop new standard that we are going to document; the aspiration is that we should have a web platform from where people can go and actually download those principles, standards and font, to a point where somebody can almost download a complete website for an agency.

“And the work they will then need to do will be extremely minimal. Because we’ve prescribed to them what a government website must look like in Nigeria regardless of your agency. And Nigerians will get used to what a Nigerian government website should look like,” he said.

The minister  further explained that government standardised websites will help citizens to interact more and boost their trust in government activities.

According to him,  the report of the standardised websites for government agencies and institutions will be presented to the Federal Executive Council (FEC) for adoption.

“My hope and aspiration is that you are not getting involved just here today that you actually participated in that process because the goal would be to have people work in different sub-groups to design what we want to see and we are going to get experts from the industry as well that will support us.

“And there will be a special advisory board for this project that will review everything that will be done and before it is released it will come back to this project committee because you are the ones that are responsible for this platform, for you to review.

“And once we all agree that this is what the new standard should be for web platforms within the Nigerian government, we will take it to FEC to adopt and say every agency must migrate to,” he said.

The Executive Commissioner, National Data Protection Commission (NDPC) Dr. Vincent Olatunji advised the committee to make sure that as they work on the new template, they should endeavour to consider individual data protection and cyber security.

“As you know, personal data and cyber security are a major component of anything you do; I urge you to make personal data protection and cyber security a major aspect of all that you will do,” he said.

Developments in government is an initiative of the Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy which brings together tech professionals in government so that they can chart the way forward for the nation technologically.

The tech professionals meet every month to discuss the nation’s technological advancement.

Oghenevwede Ohwovoriole

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