CPN wants more roles for IT in Nigeria economy
Nigeria’s computer regulatory body, the Computer Professionals
Nigeria (CPN) is rooting for
the deployment of IT in Nigeria’s economy. The CPN is urging for a
stronger policy thrust
that will enable IT to be more integrated in government processes to
achieve greater speed
and efficiency in delivering the benefits of governance to the
people.
President and Chairman of Council Ibrahim Tizhe at the opening
ceremony of the recently held
CPN Information Technology Professionals Assembly in Abuja, said
government has taking the
right steps by creating institutions and institutional framework for
bringing IT closer to
governance. But he advised that there was a need to take more
practical steps at actualizing
the frameworks. The three days event attracted over three thousand
participants from the
government, academic, private and public sectors.
Also at the opening ceremony, the Registrar/Secretary of CPN, Mr.
Sikiru A. Shehu, advocated
for the need of a more viable and recognize IT sector that must be
present in all sphere of
the Nigeria economy. In nations that have recorded faster economic
growth in the last few
years, IT has played a major role, said Shehu while stressing the
need for Nigeria to join
this progressive league if it must turn around its economy.
Both Tizhe and Shehu found support in Mrs. Ibukun Odusote, Permanent
Secretary Ecological
Fund Office, The Presidency, Abuja. Odusote in her presentation
‘Government-to-Government
(G2G) Process Automation: Imperatives for Civil Service e-Readiness
- Electronic
Governance: Matters Arising ,‘ said IT cannot be left out of any
sector. She describes
e-Government concept an automated information enabling system for
speeding up the decision
process to deliver transparent and accountable “government to
government-to-business-to
citizens services at all times.” Government needs to ne automated to
deliver the goods more
efficiently and faster to the citizens.
Odusote pointed out that studies show that only 10% of available
content in bulky files are
humanly accessible at a given timeframe for making decisions in
government and that Nigeria
cannot be left out as we are entering into a new world where faster
information processes
was critical to managing people and resources.
She recommended that government should develop a special and
continuous Train-the–Trainer IT
programme for all government officers, automate governance and
promote indigenous software
at all government levels; locate a transponder out of the Nigeria
communication satellite
for e-Government and e-Education Infrastructure – as a bridge for
knowledge and information
sharing and also as repository of inter-generational knowledge
warehouse.
Also she said a National Education Database Portal with
e-learning/library capabilities
should be made a priority infrastructure for all Nigerian schools
and government should, as
a matter of critical urgency set-up a National e-Government Secured
Content Development and
Security Machinery.
On his part, The president of Association of Telecommunication
Companies of Nigeria (ATCON),
Engr. Titi Omo-Ettu in his presentation titled ‘The Business
Opportunities of Mobile
Services’ first thanked the CPN for its show of solidarity with
ATCON. He stated that
“those who do not want to or are not capable of using ICT to govern
should not lead us, and
that ATCON will invite all presidential candidates to address us on
how they will use ICT to
govern us.”
The three day event had also stakeholders that included Amara
Nwankpa of Galaxy Backbone
Plc, Yele Okeremi of Precise Financial System, Akin Fapohunda of
Aflon Digital institute,
Abuja, Dr. Titilola Olusola Akinlade; Dr Gabriel M.M. Obi and Prof.
Moustapha Diack,
Director/Co-founder of the MERLOT Africa Network. The event ended on
the third day with CPN
annual general meeting in which Tizhe recounted the achievement of
CPN in the past one year.
