The Nigerian government said it spent a whopping N152 billion on digitalization in 2021, describing it as a quantum leap from the N9 billion spent in 2019 and 2020.
“While we are targeting 2030 to have a paperless government operation, we will like to inform you that the government spent N152 billion on digitalization in 2021. This amount is a quantum leap from the N9 billion spent in 2019 and 2020,” the Minister of Communications and \digital Economy, Prof. Isa Pantami disclosed at the Champion Day and Closing of 2021 Service Wide Capacity Building program on e-Government in Abuja.
According to him, the amount constitutes the total sum approved by National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) for the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), Immigration and Customs among other agencies of government for the 2021 fiscal year.
He said the target of the Federal Government is to make sure that by 2030, we achieve a paperless government where emerging technologies like Blockchain that has data integrity and many more is guaranteed.
While maintaining that paperless government is very possible because government is desirous of digitizing its processes, he posited that technology cannot do it alone, stressing that training those who will manage the technology effectively for the betterment of our country is also important.
In her goodwill message, the Head of Service Civil of Federation, (HoSCF) Dr Folashade Yemi-Esan disclosed that many Ministries, Departments, and Agencies of government are on the verge to digitalize their processes, assuring that by the end of the year, many successes would have been recorded in the nation’s drive to digitalization.
While commending the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy and its parastatals for the support in ensuring that processes at the Office of Head of Service for the Federation is digitalize, she noted that the gestures would go a long way in assisting us to achieve our own dream.
Meanwhile, the NITDA Director-General who also doubled as the Council’s Chairman, e-Government Training Centre, Kashifu Inuwa, CCIE, said the Federal Government had trained 1,376 civil servants from 48 ministries, departments and agencies between November 2020 and December 2021 in the use of ICT.
He said the capacity building programme for civil servants is part of the federal government’s e-Government Master Plan aimed at digitizing every government process in all ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs).