By Chimezie Godfrey
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) of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy has commenced the 2022 eGovernment Service-Wide Capacity Building Progamme.
Speaking on the role of NITDA, the Agency’s Director General, Kashifu Inuwa, noted that the move is aimed at equipping public servants in the nation with the necessary skills needed for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) and the future of work.
He stated that as a result of 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 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 Galaxybone 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 were 10 but in 2021 they were 12.
“In 2020 the number of public servants trained were 489 and 890 in 2021, the number of effective training days were 26 and 48 in 2020 and 2021 respectively. The number of effective training hours were 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 were 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, the Executive Course I, was included so as to train Chief Executive Officers (CEO) of Agencies and Parastatal of the government.
He said, “for the Executive Course I, which we are starting in Abuja is targeting the CEOs of Federal Government Agencies and Parastatals, we intended to have nine batches within the year, two in a month fortnightly, in each batch we will have 20 CEO’s making it a total of 180 CEO’s to be trained”.
“We have the Executive Course II which targets public servants at the Directorate cadre and in each batch we are inviting 100 participants and we intend to have 18 batches making a total of 1,800 participants.”
“For the Professional course which we are having with you now, we are targeting 100 participants and we are planning for 13 batches making it 1,300 participants”.
“We started in 2020 and in that year we did little, in 2021 we did much but in 2022 we have become more ambitious as we want to have our tentacles outside the boundaries of Abuja”, Prof Mohammed noted.
He said the Agency will be replicating Executive Course I and Executive II which it has started in Abuja across the six geopolitical zones.
