FG invested N152bn on digitisation in 2021, targets paperless govt in 2030

The Federal Government has revealed a plan that it is targeting 2030 to migrate all government paper activities to paperless.

The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Professor Isa Pantami, disclosed this in Abuja during the Champion Day and Closing of 2021 Service Wide Capacity Building program on e-Government.

According to the Minister, “the target of the Federal Government is to make sure that by 2030, we achieve a paperless government where emerging technologies like Blockchain that has data integrity and many more is guaranteed.

Prof Pantami maintained that the achievement of paperless government is very possible because the government is desirous of digitising its processes.

He, however, posited that technology cannot do it alone; “we must ensure that we train ourselves so that we manage the technology effectively for the betterment of our country.”

The Minister also revealed that Federal Government has spent a total of N152 billion on digitalisation in 2021, the amount, he said, was “a quantum leap from the N9 billion spent in 2019 and 2020.”

He stated that the amount constitutes the total sum approved by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) for the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), Immigration, and Customs among other agencies of government for the 2021 fiscal year.

He noted that the Federal Government is committed to the implementation of digitizing its processes for effective service delivery.

“To show us the level of implementation of the government’s digital services in the country, from January to December 2021, NITDA, on behalf of the government, has approved the execution of 499 projects. However, the approved projects include the backlog of 2020 and 2019,” he noted.

In her goodwill message, the Head of Service Civil of Federation, Dr Folashade Yemi-Esan disclosed that many Ministries, Departments, and Agencies of government are on the verge to digitalize their processes.

She assured that by the end of the year, many successes would have been recorded in the nation’s drive to digitalization.

While commending the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy and its parastatals for the support in ensuring that processes at the Office of Head of Service for the Federation is digitalised, she noted that “the gestures would go a long way in assisting us to achieve our own dream.

Dr Yemi-Esan thanked NITDA for the role it is playing to get the Office of Head of Service of the Federation a platform that would enhance digitalisation of government processes.

“I want to thank NITDA because we have been able to work together to get a platform the HoSCF would use for digitalization and right now we are working on approval for the platform,” she stated.

While describing the training as very apt because of all the technologies the government is putting in place, Dr Yemi-Esan urged the trainees to ensure that they replicate what they have learnt in their respective MDAs by training the other staff.

Meanwhile, the NITDA Director-General who also doubled as the Council’s Chairman, e-Government Training Centre, Kashifu Inuwa, CCIE, said the Federal Government had trained 1,376 civil servants from 48 ministries, departments and agencies between November 2020 and December 2021 in the use of ICT.

He said the capacity building programme for civil servants is part of the federal government’s e-Government Master Plan aimed at digitising every government process in all ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs).

The NITDA boss recalled that the journey started in November 2019 when the President, Muhammadu Buhari directed that the Centre should be used to build the capacity of the federal civil servant.

While acknowledging the civil servant as the engine room of the government, Inuwa maintained that if the government wishes to transform, the civil servants need to be transformed first.

He added that transformation is not just about technology, we need the people that will operate the technology, if we don’t have the people or a proper process in place, we would not have value from the technology.

He stated further that the essence of e-Government tools is for convenient and cost-saving. We all see what happened during the COVID-19, with technology we were able to continue our activities while under lockdown.

YOU SHOULD NOT MISS THESE HEADLINES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE

FALSE! Yoruba Not An Official Language In Brazil

Claim: A national newspaper and multiple online platforms claim Brazil has adopted Yoruba as its official language and that the language would be included in primary and secondary schools curriculum.

Verdict: The claim is false. The content of the article published by these online platforms is not new; it has been recirculated several times and has been debunked.FG invested N152bn on digitisation in 2021, targets paperless govt in 2030

FG invested N152bn on digitisation in 2021, targets paperless govt in 2030