Uzodinma, others commit to national digital development

Governors of Imo and Edo States, Hope Uzodinma and Godwin Obaseki, and other stakeholders have committed to the implementation of the National Digital Economy and Policy Strategy (NDEPS), for an inclusive national digitisation and e-Government plans.

The stakeholders made the commitment on Wednesday at the inaugural meeting of the Presidential Council on Digital Economy and e-Government in Abuja.

The council is chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari from the launch of the NDEPS in November 2019, with Governors Uzodinma, Obaseki, Nasir el-Rufai,Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Abdullahi Sule, Muhammad Yahaya, among other stakeholders as members.

Uzodinma said digitisation requires proper record keeping, collection of data and then digitalisation of the infrastructure department, which his state was working on.

“Before this meeting, I was about creating an agency to manage our digital economy, but I am going to now create a full-blown State Ministry of Digital Economy and IT Management.

“I will also support for a well thought out policy in making sure we have a robust digital economy that will create jobs and employment for our youths,” he said.

The governor said: “I am happy to be a member of this council and will do my best to contribute my quota towards national development.”

Obaseki on his part, said the world had fast become a global stage and Nigeria cannot afford to be left out.

“In Edo state, we have already initiated a lot of activities, Edo Best Educational platform runs on technology, where all our 15,000 teachers have devices.

“We are implementing technology in our Primary Health Care centres, we have hubs on our own and they are not aligned with what is happening nationally.

“This council will help align the different initiatives on digitisation from different parts of the country.

“It will reduce the waste that comes with non-alignment and also gain momentum, speed in terms of implementing digital strategy as a country,” he said.

Mr Niyi Adebayo, Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment said that there is an existing collaboration with the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy to come up with indigenous devices.

Adebayo said the devices will be used in the implementation of the NDEPS and ensure reducing the cost of the devices that will be used through the initiative.

Pillars of NDEPS are developmental regulation, digital literacy and skills, solid infrastructure, service infrastructure, digital services and development promotion.

Others are soft infrastructure, digital society and emerging technologies and indigenous content promotion and adoption.

The Presidential council was launched to strengthen the capacity of government, to develop, adopt and deploy digital technologies to make government more efficient and transparent.

The council is also to ensure the improvement of Nigeria’s global standing in the ease of doing business index.