By Chinenye Anuforo
The Executive Vice Chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta has said that, e-Governance is an essential component of the digital economy.
Danbatta who said this at the Nigeria e-Government Summit 2021 held recently in Lagos with the theme, “e-Government: Opportunities and Challenges” disclosed the NCC has been working assiduously with all stakeholders to deepen penetration of broadband infrastructure and services which support the growth of e-Governance and other critical digital economy objectives throughout Nigeria.
He said the Commission recently unveiled its Strategic Vision Plan (SVP 2021-2025) which enables it to effectively align with efforts of the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS) and global best practices. “Leveraging on the successes we achieved under our previous SVP, we are repositioning both the Commission and the entire industry to facilitate the availability of solid infrastructure and to proliferate digital platforms which effectively and efficiently enable digital inclusion throughout Nigeria.”
However, Danbatta noted that the task of attracting infrastructure investments is a collective responsibility. “We should all therefore commit to removing barriers to investment – such as multiple taxation and regulation, arbitrary pricing of bottleneck resources like Right-of-Way, time-consuming and unfriendly approval processes, etc. These factors discourage investments in digital infrastructure and reduce the speed at which we provide our people with access to seamless digital service infrastructure for e-Governance and other services, the NCC boss said.
Earlier in his welcome address, the Executive Chairman, DigiServe Network Services, Lanre Ajayi, said this year’s summit focused on opportunities and challenges of e-Government adoption in Nigeria.
Ajayi said: “With the advent of democracy, expectations of citizens from governments are higher. Citizens rate their governments largely on how efficient and effective government services are delivered to them. e-Government, which is essentially about the deployment of technologies in government processes and service delivery to citizens, provides immense opportunities for governments to deliver services to citizens most effectively and efficiently.”
Also speaking at the event, Muhammad Mamman Nami, Executive Chairman of Nigeria’s Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) noted that technological advancement, changing global rules and regulations, growth damages of cities among others, have brought about a lot of changes to the way things are across the spectrum be it in the private sector, public sector or educational institution.
Nami who was represented by Chiaka Ben-Obi, Group Lead, Digital Support Group at FIRS said for the government and its ministries, departments and agencies, the way they interact with shareholders at large and deliver at the right time and quality that is why the term eGovernment adoption in Nigeria Opportunity and Challengies is timely and could have been a better chance.
