BY GLORIA USMAN, ABUJA – The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has commenced strategic capacity building workshop for Ministries, Departments and Agencies of the Federal Public Institutions (FPI).
The training was in a bid to hasten the implementation of the National e-Government Master plan and inculcate the use of Information Technology in carrying out government activities.
The training which is in three phases would have one for Directors of ICT and Heads of Procurement benefitting from the first phase while Network administrators and Domain Managers will participate in the second phase while the third batch is for the NITDA team driving the digital transformation agenda.
Director General of NITDA, Malam Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, explained that the purpose of the training is to ensure that the application of technology in running government activities become part of public service especially during this post COVID-19 era.
Abdullahi, who was represented at the training workshop by the Director e-Government Development and Regulation, Dr. Vincent Olatunji, further said that in line with the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS) NITDA, has a strategic roadmap that is being implemented.
He said that one of the major pillars driving the policy is to develop quality human capital to drive government initiatives and government plans at the various MDAs.
The Director General said that in line with the National e-Government masterplan of the country, a strategy to have institutional framework was designed to implement the NDEPS.
A DT-TWGS was setup earlier and 442 members from 89 MDAs were trained.
Abdullahi also said that it is in a bid to spread the training to other critical stakeholders in the MDAs that necessitated the need for this strategic capacity building workshop in order to exchange ideas and share knowledge on various strategic initiatives to put in place for the Nation to move forward under this new normal, the post COVID-19 era.
Speaking further, the Director General said the training focuses basically on three major topics: e-government and National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy, legal framework for e-government and thirdly managing government process reengineering.
One of the resource persons, Engr. Nasir Shinkafi of Backbone Connectivity Networks Nigeria LTD highlighted the major attributes of e-government as transparency, efficiency and quality service and this he said, will yield strategic outcomes such as a high performing government with high performance culture, responsible financial management and competent, committed non-corruptible officers.
Speaking on legal framework, Mr. Emmanuel Edet Esq. of NITDA, explained that for e-Government, the subject matters requiring legal framework are organisational structure, recognition of electronic documents, authentication and e-signature, security and trust.
Others are electronic information management, interoperability framework, privacy and personal data security and funding for e-government research.
