The Minister of Communications, Dr. Abdur-Raheem Adebayo Shittu, has called for more hard work by all stakeholders in the ICT Sector on the implementation of the e-Government Master Plan, to fully harness its benefits.
The Minister said this recently at the official launch of the nation’s e-Government Master Plan held at Trancorps Hilton, Abuja.
Shittu said, “while there have been some e-Government services implemented, I dare say, for Nigeria to fully harness the promised benefits, there is still a lot more work to be done both at the Federal level as well as by the various state governments”.
Earlier, the minister enumerated the benefits of the e-Government Master Plan being launched by the Federal Ministry of Communications to include cost savings, efficiency in service delivery, enhanced transparency and accountability.
Others according to him include improved public administration, growth of the ICT sector, leading to employment opportunities, and improved economic development which are the benefits the nation stand to harvest from the newly launched e-Government Master Plan.
He reiterated that in recognition of the several benefits accruable from the adoption of the e-Government practices, the United Nation’s Department of Economic and Social Affairs in 2003, encouraged member nations to adopt e-Government practices and as well strive to improve the quality and scope of its adoption.
Dr. Shittu explained that UN survey shows that there is a correlation between the national income of a country and the level of e-Government development.
He said the Federal Government believes that a holistic adoption and implementation of the e-Government Master Plan will inevitably result in an increase in the sector’s contribution to the national GDP.
The minister noted that the government is aware of the fact that such a huge project , as the holistic implementation of e-Government might encounter resistance amongst some civil servants and have consequently prevented this probable hitch by putting in place a robust “ Capacity Building Programme”, in collaboration with the Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA).