In a move aimed at equipping public servants in the nation with the necessary skills needed for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) and the future of work, the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), has commenced the 2022 eGovernment Service-Wide Capacity Building Progamme.
This is in continuation of the implementation of the e-Government Master Plan and the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy through the Strategic Roadmap and Action Plan (SRAP 2021-2024).
Speaking on the role of NITDA, the Agency’s Director General, Kashifu Inuwa, stated that as a result of the philosophy of digital inclusion, it is impossible to stay in the comfort of Abuja and drive technology or digital skills and expect it to get to the rural areas which he said was important to the reason why the centre was created in the first place.
Inuwa who was represented by the Director, Research and Development, Dr. Agu Collins Agu added that “technology is dynamic which makes upskilling and reskilling come into play, especially for federal public servants that will be driving all government digital transformation”.
The Managing Director of Galaxy Backbone Limited and the Co-Chairman of e-GTC Governing Board, Prof. Mohammed Bello Abubakar while giving an update on the performance of the Centre, said in 2020, the number of batches implemented was 10 but in 2021 they were 12.
“In 2020 the number of public servants trained was 489 and 890 in 2021, the number of effective training days was 26 and 48 in 2020 and 2021 respectively. The number of effective training hours was 208 in 2020 and 384 in 2021.
“If you look at the number of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) the centre was able to pitch, there were 25 in 2020 and in 2021 there were 41. The number of Public servants invited in 2020 was 765 and 1,220 in 2021,” he said.
The Director of eGTC, Prof Suleiman Mohammed, while giving the training plan for the year mentioned that, Executive Course I, was included so as to train Chief Executive Officers (CEO) of Agencies and Parastatal of the government.