Nigeria’s federal government has announced plans to digitalise 80% of its activities by next year as part of President Bola Tinubu administration’s drive towards modernising Nigeria’s public sector.
The project aims to enhance efficiency, reduce corruption, improve transparency, and bring Nigeria’s public sector in line with global best practices in e-governance.
Speaking at the opening of a digitalization training programme for staff of the Office of the Vice President at the State House Conference Hall on Monday, Deputy Chief of Staff to the Nigerian President (Office of the Vice President), Senator Hassan Hadejia said there was an urgent need to transform government operations using digital technologies.
He said “If you don’t go digital, you get to a point where you will even fail to integrate with the rest of the world. Everybody is moving ahead, and you have to get to that level where you can at least get that connectivity.”
The Deputy Chief of Staff noted the necessity of leading by example, saying, “If you have a State House that is digitized or has gone paperless, every agency and everybody would be forced to comply.”
He stressed that compliance must be enforced across all Ministries, Departments, and Agencies to ensure the initiative’s success.
“Compliance has to be enforced because if you wait for everybody to be ready you will not achieve the goal. If you have a situation where you are forced to present your requests or responses in a digital format, everybody will be forced to comply,” he said.
Drawing inspiration from the judiciary’s successful adoption of digital processes, Senator Hadejia said, “Surprisingly, the judiciary is almost at the forefront of digitization now. It simply happened because several years ago the Supreme Court said it will not tolerate paper processes from lawyers anymore.”
Earlier, State House Permanent Secretary, Olusesan Adebiyi said the State House decided to set up a training centre to enhance efficiency among its workers, adding that more training would be organised periodically for staff members.
He also announced the procurement of 500 desktop computers and the establishment of a training centre within the State House to enhance staff members’ productivity.
“We already have 500 newly acquired desktop computers manufactured and configured for use in the State House,” Adebiyi said.
He appealed to staff members to embrace the new process while charging them not to be left behind.
Deji Elumoye
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