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By Chinenye Anuforo, [email protected]
The executive vice-chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, has said that the e-Governance structure was an essential component of the digital economy.
This is even as other stakeholders in the ICT industry endorsed the adoption of e-Governance in the country, saying it is the way to go in order to actualize the Federal Government’s digital economy plan.
Danbatta, who stated this at the Nigeria e-Government Summit 2021, organised by DigiServe Network Services recently in Lagos, with the theme, “E-Government: Opportunities and Challenges,” disclosed the NCC has been working assiduously with all stakeholders to deepen penetration of broadband infrastructure and services, which support the growth of e-Governance and other critical digital economy objectives throughout Nigeria.
He said the commission recently unveiled its Strategic Vision Plan (SVP 2021-2025), which enables it to effectively align with efforts of the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS) and global best practices.
“Leveraging on the successes we achieved under our previous SVP, we are repositioning both the commission and the entire industry to facilitate the availability of solid infrastructure and to proliferate digital platforms, which effectively and efficiently enable digital inclusion throughout Nigeria.”
However, Danbatta noted that the task of attracting infrastructure investments was a collective responsibility: “We should all, therefore, commit to removing barriers to investment, such as multiple taxation and regulation, arbitrary pricing of bottleneck resources like right-of-way, time-consuming and unfriendly approval processes, etc. These factors discourage investments in digital infrastructure and reduce the speed at which we provide our people with access to seamless digital service infrastructure for e-Governance and other services,” the NCC boss said.
Earlier, in his welcome address, the chairman of DigiServe Network Services, Lanre Ajayi, said this year’s summit focused on opportunities and challenges of e-Government adoption in Nigeria.
Ajayi said: “With the advent of democracy, expectations of citizens from governments are higher. Citizens rate their governments largely on how efficient and effective government services are delivered to them. E-Government, which is essentially about the deployment of technologies in government processes and service delivery to citizens, provides immense opportunities for governments to deliver services to citizens most effectively and efficiently.”
Also speaking at the event, Muhammad Mamman Nami, executive chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), noted that technological advancement, changing global rules and regulations, growth damages of cities, among others, have brought about a lot of changes in the private sector, public sector or educational institutions.
