The ePassport programme developed for the Nigerian Immigration Department and financed by Skye Bank as it eliminates multiple acquisition, identity theft and forgery seen in the system will provide timely immigration data bank in the country.
The ECOWAS platform for e-vehicle licensing developed by the agency has only recently been demonstrated. While it has been commended for robust character and content, it stands recommended for adoption by member states as a way of fostering better trade relations, vehicular movement and registration. All of these fall within the e-projects that we can point to in recent times.
Other eSuites developed by NeGSt include those that will ensure the efficiency and functionality of the different layers of the country’s economy as well as citizen-centric schemes. The pensions automation scheme, spun to eliminate the lopsided method in use at present lends credence to efforts being made at developing and entrenching a viable scheme.
In the words of NeGSt executive vice chairman, Dr. Olu Agunloye, "Our efforts must turn into Naira" The statement lends itself to all those engaged in the onerous task laid at the feet of the agency to get charged up. In what looks like a clarion call (to action) at the just concluded eNigeria 2007 in Abuja, Professor Cleopas Angaye, Chairman NITDA, agrees, "We have a lot of work to do to promote standards and regulation". All hands must then be on deck in the realization of our lofty ideals.
In year 2003, the government of Nigeria moved to establish NeGSt., with Agunloye, a product of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology – MIT in the USA, as chief executive and head of operations. He was chief operating officer for seven years, at the Federal Road Safety Corp.
With the mandate to implement the Nigerian eGovernment programme, the new agency set out on its task to build, implement and sustain the various platforms it had crafted, drawing from the experiences of countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, the United States and even South Africa.
For its operations, the agency drew from the three levels of funding made available from shareholders that include banks such as UBA, EcoBank, Wema, Afribank, GTB and Skyebank. There are pioneer or blind investors as well as those who can be described as intellectual property owners. The lot includes technical solution providers and consultants who contributed to various aspects of the national e-government project that was taking root.
Funds also came from specific projects such as the Teachers’ Registration Project nurtured by Skyebank and the e-immigration by a consortium of four banks.There is also the 10% shareholding by the government of Nigeria that is held in trust by the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology through NITDA, charged with the promotion of standards and regulations in all IT issues.
The determined efforts by the government to provide good governance through due diligence, accountability and transparency alternately spawned the need to begin public sector reforms and the integration of all ministries, parastatals, departments and agencies in Nigeria. In many forums and debates, it was held as one of the paths to fast track the realization of our aspirations as a global eNation.
In 2001, the United Nations (UN) in its e-readiness report was unequivocal on the benefits derivable from authenticating and articulating the various platforms that will ensure the growth and sustenance of eNations as the knowledge economy increasingly swayed the world to new heights.
Autor(en)/Author(s): Sola Fanawopo
Quelle/Source: Daily Sun, 14.11.2007
