The Federal Government has stated that the 2025 deadline for full migration to the digitalisation of operations in the public service in Nigeria remains sacrosanct, in line with the commitment of the current administration to e-governance and open government.
This is even as the government on Thursday unveiled the revised public service rules aimed at strengthening the public service in the country.
Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Dr Folasade Yemi-Esan, speaking at the Public Service Lecture organized as one of the activities to commemorate the 2023 Civil Service Week, said the present and future of the civil service lie in digitalisation.
She announced at the event that her office, (Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation) has completed the digitalisation processes ahead of time, explaining that all the personal and policy files have been scanned and stored in digital format and that workflow processes are now transacted within the office digitally.
Yemi-Esan further noted that from the Service-wide perspective, all Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) are running with the digitalisation programme and are at different stages of implementation, with a mandate for all to achieve full migration by the end of 2025.
She said some MDAs have also deployed some Enterprise Content Management (ECM) solutions for their workflows, saying an ECM Composite Readiness Survey conducted in May this year indicated that the Ministry of Transport has deployed the solution, while a number of other Ministries are on the verge of deploying the ECM, having crossed the 80 per cent threshold.
She listed some of the ministries to include, the Budget Office of the Federation; Federal Civil Service Commission; Federal Ministry of Science, Technology & Innovation; Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs & Disaster Management and Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
The Head of Service said: “Following the very extensive work carried out to put in place the required mechanisms for the smooth transition from physical handling of tasks, I am pleased to state that the Office of the Head of Service has gone digital with its work processes.
“By this, I mean, all the personal and policy files have been scanned and stored in digital format; workflow processes are now transacted within the office digitally.
“All official correspondence in the form of memos, internal and external circulars, are processed electronically through the ECM Solution, and this is one of the great milestones being celebrated today,” she stated.
Special Assistant to the President on Monetary Policy, Olawale Edun, who officially unveiled the new public service rules earlier approved by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, said the President is fully committed to the ongoing transformation in the nation’s civil service.
He particularly noted that President succeeded in the transformation of the civil service as Governor of Lagos, as a result of the digitalisation of government processes.
Chairman, Federal Civil Service Commission, Tukur Bello Ingawa, noted that the digitalised public service was critical at the time of the nation, saying Nigeria’s civil service could not afford to fail the nation in the delivery of effective and efficient service to the citizens.
“It is expedient for the Nigerian Civil Service to adopt technology, particularly considering the fact that the level of development of any nation is increasingly an indication of the performance or non-performance of its public service.
“As we are aware, in implementing its mandate the Government makes policy decisions to improve the well-being of its people. The success of these decisions depends essentially on the Public Service as the government cannot achieve its objectives without an efficient and effective public service,” he said.
Furthermore, he also disclosed that from now on, the promotional exams of Civil Servants will now be conducted online, adding that all civil servants must keep themselves abreast of the application of new technologies.
Stating also that the digitalisation of the commission brought a drastic reduction of ghost workers and fake appointment letters, he advocated for severe punishment for those who are not credibly employed in the civil service.
Delivering the public lecture, a professor of Economic Policy, Blavatnik School of Government and Economics Department, Professor Stefan Dercon, called on Civil Servants to express motivation in ensuring that the digital transformation is appropriately driven.
More so, he said, with the digitalisation initiative, interaction in the system and with citizens, data creation, and management systems would significantly improve. However, He identified inclusion as a significant challenge, saying that the Civil Service should not be a service for a relatively few but for the citizens in general.
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