One of such programmes is the e-registration. This according to NeGst, is a bold step towards rediscovering an enduring central database for Nigeria.
In fact the totality of e-registration is about the empowerment of the citizens of Nigeria. There are several databases in the country but the truth is that they exist in parallel, un-interoperable and obviously disjointed.
Interestingly, NeGst ,which is also a Public Private Partnership initiative endorsed by the Nigerian government to champion the realisation of e-Nigeria, said it has got the antidote to uninteroperability and true strategy of making these disjointed databases shake hands.
In expressing that, it created 26 units called special agencies out of the country. To that effect, people operating in the establishments, organisations and departments of these twenty six units would be registered electronically and the records would be tied to a national database for easy access.
Kicking off registration in the 26 special agencies, NeGst said it has first chosen the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria TRCN, as a frontline agency because of their e-readiness and e-preparedness and the strategic position of their profession.
Explaining this last week while interacting with the newsmen, at the commencement of e-registration of teachers in the Lagos zone of TRCN, Executive Vice Chairman of NeGst, Dr Olu Agunloye, spoke on a lot of issues standing e-registration out as a possible tool to actualising interactive government in Nigeria.
According to him, “what we are doing here now is to develop a database for all the teachers in Nigeria who are estimated to be about 1.5 million. Once this is done it could be easy for the job of the TRCN to be carried out and as well get the teachers computer literate. The benefit is that once the teachers key in their data, it would never change but rather it would be tided up with the data from the universities, colleges of education, passport and drivers license. Then we know that sooner or later, anyone with altered or forged document, would be caught up”.
Speaking on a central database for the country, he said “well Nigeria has a database. It’s just that it may be called a dis-jointed database. NNPC network has a database, Federal Inland Revenue has a lot of Data. The Department of National Civic Registration DNCR, has data for 52 million Nigerians. All the banks in Nigeria, has different data of millions of Nigerians who have accounts with them. The problem with these data are, one, they are disjointed. Two: they are not interoperable, meaning they can not be connected. So the process that we are in, is to actually respect that these data are there and we can have access to them. It is however, possible that those data may not be completely correct but we can refer to them” he added.
Meanwhile, NeGst in relying on the data of DNCR with its 52 million , plans to install a mailserver at the Department of National Civic Registration ,after which it can now collect all the data from the banks, from the corporate affairs commission and then allow people to have access to them on the e-Nigeria portal.
On the states that are going e-government; Agunloye said it was a blessing rather than a curse. “ I can say that only Ondo state and one other state are collaborating with us. Ondo state in particular has done a lot of good work on their own. They have set up what is called Information Technology Development Centre and this may be a model for other states.
They have trained up to 18,000 civil servants and have installed about 400 computers, all networked for training of civil servants. But of course what we have noticed is that the states, in different levels are becoming ready for e-government. They have been doing their work in parallel and a little bit disjointed. So the first step we have taken is to classify them into six different levels. In the six steps towards an e-state, we allow each state to see where it is in the different steps and let them understand that they can go parallel but must make sure they have a central architecture which is in harmony with the government’s. It is completely in order for each state to run its own e-government. We just set the standard for them and provide them the content that they can use”.
For Agunloye, “ there are more than 16.7 million people using GSM. We still have not programmed the e-Nigerian portal to the extent that GSM can communicate with. Once we do that we can be sure to reach more people in an easier way. We also have to take advantage of the interest of the bank in promoting what they call the e-kiosk. So that we have it in several places”.
The e-kiosk is a public information kiosk where the information of government can be accessed for an interactive government.
Autor(en)/Author(s): Prince Osuagwu
Quelle/Source: Vanguard, 12.07.2006
