The Institute of Information Management (IIM) has announced plans to host a national summit on Information Management themed, ‘Information Management For Change: Roles And Responsibilities Of Key Stakeholders’.
Minister of Communications,Barr. Adebayo Shittu and Minister for Science and Technology,Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu are among the dignitaries expected at the Summit.
According to Amb (Dr.) Oyedokun Oyewole, President / Chairman Governing Council, Institute of Information Management (IIM) Africa, going by the current economic realities, the National Summit on information management has become a National emergency following the duplicity of data in various Government agencies, which in itself is costly and difficult to manage.
This, he said, has also negatively impacted on Government decisions in moving the Nation forward, as lack of centralized, timely, quality and adequate information has impeded on the Economic growth.
“In this era of change, we must recognize that governments alone cannot improve the situation in the country. To achieve our collective goals as a Nation, we need to bring key stakeholders together across the country, from the private sector, to civil society, to government. If we do not work together, the situation just won’t change. Various stakeholders need to understand their roles and responsibilities on how we can harness information to better help improve the economy.
“It is essential to identify the individuals and groups in the society who will contribute to the development of the system, identify those that it will affect from its introduction, and then develop a strategy for dealing with them, which is why a summit of this nature is essential at this very point in time, he said”.
Dr. Oyewole described information management as complex and seems overwhelming but as Nation, the country need to understand its essence in this day and age for a countless of reasons. He said that there are so many tasks, information sources, questions, critical connections and processes involved.
“For a country like Nigeria that is trying to diversify the economy, we need to figure out how information management can help solve pressing challenges, make the economy run smoother, and address the needs of citizens. The good news: the mission of this summit is to create the much desired awareness, culture and conditions to capture, extract and leverage the value in the information managed by various stakeholders in the Country and her ecosystem”, he noted.