As Governments all around the globe are substantially investing in the adoption of electronic government in order to enhance services to citizens while lowering costs, Infobip, a global leader in omnichannel communications with a customer engagement platform that powers a broad range of solutions has recommended an omnichannel approach to public sector engagement with citizens as a recipe for a well-executed e-government strategy for Nigeria.
According to Infobip, its customer engagement platform can easily integrate with WhatsApp Business API to communicate accurate and trustworthy information with citizens and ultimately, offer them timely updates from several governmental institutions’ services.
“Here at Infobip, we believe the solution is an eGovernment strategy that empowers public agencies to deliver a truly relevant, connected and seamless experience to its citizens. The idea behind the omnichannel approach to citizens engagement as one of the best practices recommended is for the government to be able to engage with the citizens anytime and anywhere over their preferred channels. Since the Nigerian individual is progressively becoming a digital consumer, government will be able to profile areas and segment service delivery properly,” said Olatayo Ladipo-Ajai, Country Manager, Infobip Nigeria.
Mr. Olatayo Ladipo-Ajai, who made a presentation at the Nigeria eGovernment Summit in Lagos with the theme: ‘eGovernment Adoption in Nigeria: Opportunities and Challenges,’ cited the case study of the Jordan government, where the First Government Virtual Citizen Service Centre in Jordan was developed by Infobip, allowing citizens to access 46 governmental institutions and include over 700 services over a verified WhatsApp channel, user-friendly and accessible platform that offered citizens timely updates from several governmental institutions’ services and that such a solid and responsive channel would ease citizens’ services, answer their inquiries and be available to them wherever they are.
Highlighting the benefits of the solution, the Infobip Country Manager noted that the solution will make it easy for citizens to get the best service across channels; government will connect with citizens across any communication channel and expand its reach; empower the digital citizen to get personalized service experiences whenever they want; unlock citizen’s data for relevant insights and create commercial opportunities at every conversational touchpoint.
He also argued that days when Government was relying on one-way communication to reach citizens through channels such as radio, TV and print media and in some cases docile social media accounts are over as such channels are not functionally dynamic or interactive.
With available figures showing 51 percent of the Nigerian population are internet users, Infobip believes Nigerian citizens are digital customers who engage and transact online every day. They are accustomed to consuming delightful, relevant and seamless experiences, with brands that continuously reinvent themselves to anticipate customers’ goals and needs.
Thus, as customers’ expectations escalate and evolve in the commercial sphere, so too will their expectations of how they will engage with the government. To transform itself and meet this shift in expectations, a digital government must go beyond bolting on technology to their agencies’ existing systems and processes. Government must provide citizens with anticipatory, enabling and connected experiences.
