* Shittu: ICT attracted N38bn in 2016
By Dele Ogbodo
The Minister of Communications, Barrister Adebayo Shittu on Wednesday stated that his ministry is developing an electronic document management system (EDMS) that will automate the ministry’s operational processes and activities.
Shittu said the system is also currently being introduced in the Ministry of Power, Works & Housing, Ministry of Budget & Planning, explaining that once it is successfully deployed, implemented and adopted in these ministries, it would be deployed across board the ministries, departments and agencies.
The minister made the disclosure in a statement signed by his Special Adviser on Media, Mr. Bolaji Kazeem Oladimeji, at third national steering committee meeting on Open Government Partnership (OGP) in Abuja.
According to him, the EDMS would automate the entire processes in the ministry by making the government to be more transparent, effective and efficient in the delivery of services to the citizens, which is in-line with the objective of OGP.
Successive government in the country, he averred have recognized the need to use ICT to transform governance but implementation has been with mixed results.
He said, “The current administration has given a new impetus to it through the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP). The plan envisages a reduction of cost of governance and leveraging technology to improve public service delivery through the implementation of e-Government across MDAs”
Barrister Shittu said that ICT has contributed immensely to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country, which is put at about 9.8 percent in June 2016 compared to 6.9 percent in 2012.
He noted that Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) in this sector has increased from $32b in 2015 to $38b in 2016. He added that, despite these successes, the potential of this sector is still not fully harnessed.
.In his words, “The Ministry, through the e-Government department, launched an initiative that involves the identification of key business processes that relates to the delivery of services to citizens by MDAs.
This would be accomplished by deploying ICTs to provide better response to citizens’ demands, improvement in service delivery and making government more efficient and more responsive as the citizens would be engaged”.
He stated that the system is currently being introduced in the Ministry of Power, Works & Housing, Ministry of Budget & Planning as well as my Ministry. Once it is successfully implemented and adopted in these Ministries, it would be deployed to other MDAs according to funds availability.
The Minister recalled the Open Data Initiative of the Ministry which led to the development of an Open Data Portal (ODP) in 2015. The ODP is for MDAs to upload their non-sensitive datasets on the portal for easy access to the citizens in accordance with the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act.
Shittu said the ministry has successfully conducted an Open Data Booth Camp in Lagos where citizens were sensitized on the benefits of Open Data and what it could be used for. The Ministry has also conducted an Open Data Action Plan meeting where an Open Data Action Plan (2018-2020) was approved. There is also a planned National Open Data Conference in Enugu in which a draft National Open Data Policy would be discussed.
Earlier, the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami announced that Nigeria was recently admitted into OGP international steering committee adding recent OGP activities in the country revealed that they had completed one year of implementation of National action plan.
He said that it is critical for MDAs and No-State actors to invest extra resources and time to ensure that Nigeria is not rated below average and hope that National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and Ministry of Communications would support the development of various technology and innovation platforms as identified in the OGP National plan.