Agunloye's assurances came against the backdrop of a major internal rift within the organisation.
While emphasising that the company can only move forward as there is no looking back, Agunloye said NeGSt has integrated on the platform all government agencies, all states, all parastatals, all banks, along with all important facilities in the country.
He said, "You can see this on www.enigeria.com.ng. We also have specific solutions like eNaira, the chatroom, where you can exchange information on that platform, eSchool, eExamination, eHealth and Telemedicine, all on that platform. The news is also on that platform. On a daily basis, we have new things being added to that platform."
Attesting that most of the programmes on the platform are indeed ready, he pointed out that although they have not been formally launched, they have been tested and ready. "Like the eNaira, when it would be launched, it would be launched in conjunction with the CBN. This is because eNaira has now assumed a bigger status of being not only a payment tool but also a payment solution and a payment gateway. Telemedicine and eHealth are already launched formally last year. The process of enlisting teaching hospitals and other hospitals is what we are doing at the moment," Agunloye said.
He also disclosed that an intense advertisement campaign is on the way to ensure adequate publicity for the programmes as they come on board. "When these programmes do commence, special advertisements and campaigns would be embarked upon jointly by NeGst and those of the other agencies. But the formal launching of the portal itself would be at a time the board would determine at its next meeting," he further explained.
Asked whether the constraints of funds which the project seems to be experiencing would not compromise the quality of application and services on offer, Agunloye said it is highly unlikely. According to him, there has always been funds constraint, and it is not something critical or elaborate. He said, "Everybody knows that the funds to run this e-government cannot come from investors. We can't ask them to bring N10 Billion to run it. Once a project is ready, I can assure you that those who will fund it will come up."
He said a major operator in the banking sector is already discussing with NeGSt on the possibility of funding the PHCN project. He assured that because the projects are moneymaking projects, funding them is not a problem although he admitted that there would be the need for the platform to be strengthened.
On the amount of technical expertise available to the company, he said "We are into partnership with alliance partners."
He added, "We have enough expertise to know what to do. It has become the model for the World Bank, UN and has been recommended to other countries. But expertise for other things: Like designing the portal, eHealth and all the other programmes. We don't need to have that expertise in-house because we are into partnership with different bodies that have that expertise. The whole concept is leveraging. You leverage on available resources. You leverage on available infrastructure on any form so that you don't have to reinvent the wheel or start looking for people t do that for you."
Agunloye maintained that eGovernment is a people empowerment programme. It provides access to education, good health, e-trade, eMarketplace and so much more. He explained that an individual in the rural area can advertise his cocoa or 'Adire' material online without having a website. "That is the kind of empowerment that egovernment brings," he further stressed.
Commenting on the hyped launch of eGovernment last year which did not take place afterall, Agunloye clarified that such information were given out by eGovt affiliates. He said most of them who had completed work on the programmes they had on offer went individually to the president to show him their applications. So, they originated the idea of the launch, not NeGSt. However, another opportunity presented itself on June 7 of the same year when partners had the opportunity to showcase stand - alone programmes to the minister of Science and Technology and the Chief Economic Adviser to the President and the Chairman, National Planning Commission. Also between August 18 to 20 last year, there was another opportunity for those who have been integrated on the eGovt platform and those who are still stand-alone, to show to president, to show to ministers and to show to permanent secretaries.
People were able to come this far because all along, the project has been making progress. Agunloye recalled: "We can say that in the year 2005, a lot of advances was made. We had our first office. We moved in towards the end of 2004. We have also been able to establish the eGovernment backbone which people can use. Also last year, we continued to use that platform for the integration of eGovt programme as well as the incubation of programmes and projects. We also used last year to build a portal. So now we have a portal, a backbone, and we had been in position to allow other programmes to come on that platform. As at August 18, we actually showed that platform to the President.
"By November 9, we had a board meeting here where we managed to show all the progress of the year to members of the board. We have also invited a marketing consultant in the name of Centrespread to show the board how all these can take us in terms of making money. These were the things we did last year.
Looking ahead, Agunloye said: "This year we will continue to consolidate by bringing in other people who were not on that platform to it. For instance, we have a programme of ePolice for the Police. It is not being implemented yet because we needed to have one more meeting with the IGP. Also, we needed to brief the CBN on how the eNaira solution can be the universal electronic payment solution in Nigeria. This year alone, we have held four meetings with the CBN on this.
"Another major thing we have done this year is to continue the pilot programme. There is a pilot programme going on telemedicine and eHealth and for two weeks. We actually set up telemedicine centres, eKiosk centres, using Mobile Internet Units at Kubwa where there was NYSC orientation. And this year, we opened the re-opened talks on eGovernment with Oyo state because towards the end of last year, the state had started building e-infrastructure which was working well until there was a changed in government.
"This year, we have commenced the journey of e-government in Ondo State. Adverts are ready to go out on e-examination, e-schools, as well as on telemedicine and e-health."
Autor: Tayo Ajakaye
Quelle: AllAfrica, 23.03.2006
