Stakeholders mull early adoption of technology to promote economic growth
The Nigeria e-Government Summit 2020 witnessed participants canvassing for early adoption of technology and increased ICT infrastructure across the country that will promote economic growth and e-Government.
The summit, which was held recently at Sheraton Hotel in Lagos and organised by DigiServe, had the theme : COVID-19: Impetus for Accelerated e-Government Adoption.
Executive Chairman, Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Mr. Muhammad Nami, who was represented by the Coordinating Director, FIRS, Mr. Femi Oluwaniyi, said the COVID-19 pandemic, even though it took the world by surprise, brought about the need for technology adoption that would keep citizens be in tune with the new normal, where meetings and conferences are now held online and government activities are more accessible online.
“There is need for early adoption of emerging technologies to improve governance and also improve the lives of Nigerians. Small businesses like Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), need to be empowered and government must begin to provide ICT infrastructure that could be leveraged by SMEs to further grow the Nigerian economy digitally,” Nami said.
According to him, FIRS was already at the forefront of technology adoption in providing seamless services for tax payers, through the e-Tax and other initiatives of the FIRS.
The Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, in his keynote address, deliberated on the significance of technology in developing the Nigerian economy and e-Government across different states of the federation.
The governor who was represented by his deputy, Dr, Obafemi Hamzat, highlighted how the state is deploying 3,000km Lagos Metro Fibre cables in order to address the shortfall of broadband infrastructure in the state in order to boost high speed broadband connectivity across the state.
“Lagos State will continue to provide leadership for the adoption of relevant technologies that will enhance e-Government and Information Technology (IT) infrastructure spread across the state,” the governor said.
Executive Chairman, DigiServe Network Services, and convener of the e-Government summit, Mr. Lanre Ajayi, said: “Technology evolution has made it easy for government service delivery and no government can survive effectively without technology application. Nigerians therefore need technology to leverage e-Government services.”
Ajayi noted that there would be detailed communiqué that would come from all deliberations at the summit that would assist government in making its services easily accessable online.
The Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, who joined the summit from Kano via a virtual conference, said NCC would continue to deepen broadband penetration across the country to boost high speed broadband connectivity.
Danbatta said that as at September this year, NCC increased broadband penetration to 45.43 per cent, up from a paltry six per cent broadband penetration in 2015.
“Telecoms subscription has reached 205 million and internet subscription has reached 150 million , with over 80 million Nigerians having access to high speed internet access. But in all of these, effective security must be put in place to guard against associated risks, which can affect e-governance, if not checked. NCC is therefore working hard to address cyber insecurity through the establishment of the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT), in collaboration with other agencies, to deal with cyberattacks,” Danbatta added.
The Secretary to the State Government of Akwa-Ibom State, Dr, Emmanuel Ekuwem, who represented Akwa-Ibom State Governor, Emmanuel Udom, who also joined the summit via a virtual conference, gave harped on the areas that the state government is leveraging technology to provide healthcare and education services across the state.
“Through technology, the state was able to establish remote healthcare services, where medical practitioners attend to patients in remote locations of the state, without physical contact. The same goes to the education sector where the state is leveraging technology to promote online education in the state,” Ekuwem enthused.
The summit heard the discussions from different panel sessions that centred on e-Government and critical success factors in specific countries that were represented at the summit; the role of government agencies in advancing national e-Government plan; Domain name, Data Centre and Co-location, among others.
