E-Governance Vital Part of Digital Economy- Danbatta
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta has said e-Governance is a vital part of the digital economy.
Danbatta stated this during the Nigeria e-Government Summit 2021 in Lagos with the theme, “e-Government: Opportunities and Challenges”. He stressed that the Commission has been working hard with various stakeholders to deepen penetration of broadband infrastructure and services which will aid the growth of e-Governance and other critical digital economy objectives in the country.
According to him, recently, the Commission disclosed its Strategic Vision Plan (SVP 2021-2025), which will help it effectively align with efforts of the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS) and global best practices.
He said: “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.”
The Vice-Chairman added that it is a collective responsibility to attract infrastructural investments, adding that “We should all, therefore, commit to removing barriers to buy – 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.
On his part, the Chairman, DigiServe Network Services, Lanre Ajayi, while giving his welcome address, noted that the year’s summit focuses on opportunities and challenges of e-Government adoption in Nigeria.
According to him: “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.”
