Government is seeking to do this through the electronic enabled local government administration project, called eLGA project. The project seeks to empower each local government in Nigeria by injecting Information and Communications Technology (ICT) tools in a structured manner, to make them efficient and responsive to the citizens' needs, in order to propel national productivity from the grassroots.
The use of the eLGA platform is expected to greatly enhance ability of government to acquire spatially distributed data for evaluating and monitoring data to guide the policy formulation, and planning and thereby grow and expand the economy to meet the national objectives of Vision 20-2020.
Speaking at the preview of the project in Abuja on Tuesday, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr. Mahmud Yayale Ahmed, stressed that the project was at the core of government's drive to transform the country to one of the 20 biggest economies of the world by 2020.
He said: "It is a critical step in line with the seven-point agenda designed to enhance the capacities, effectiveness and efficiencies of local governments; make their operations more transparent and make governance more accountable and closer to the people, and above all, make all local governments in Nigeria work in tandem in a constructive manner towards achieving the national goals set by this administration."
Noting that government would invest in training and re-training of all cadres of stall at all tiers of government, he announced that the eLGA initiative had lined up special eReadiness capacity building workshops designed for local governments from February to October next year.
He pledged the resolve of government to use structured ICT tools and eGovernment strategies to make the public service more responsive and efficient as well as to broaden the governance base to accommodate citizens' participation.
In his presentation, the Executive Vice Chairman of the National e-Government Strategies, Dr. Olu Agunloye, explained that the main goal of the eLGA project was to provide a central platform where the functions and activities could be harmonised and through which any local government could interact with other councils and with citizens and businesses at any time, irrespective of their locations.
He said, "the platform ties together local government operations such as data gathering, revenue generation, job creation along with routine administrative functions and collaborations. It also enables special activities such as education and health management and has interface to serve as electronic gateway to investors, tourists and the rest of the world."
On the preview occasion, he stressed, "this occasion is meant to provide an advance knowledge and insight into the e-enabled local government administration project."
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Emeka Anuforo
Quelle/Source: The Guardian Nigeria, 18.12.2008
