Edo sets Sept.1 deadline for MDAs to transit to e-governance

Edo Government has directed that all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to transit into the electronic governance (e-governance) platform of the state latest by Sept. 1.

The Head of Service, Mr. Anthony Okungbowa, gave the directive on Monday in Benin while meeting with staff of the State Sports Commission.

Okungbowa was represented at the gathering by Dr Peter Osagie, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security.

The head of service said a transition to paperless governance is an innovation where every worker must be carried along and ensure they key into.

“Some weeks back, Edo State Government announced that we will go paperless by Sept 1. So we want to make sure our people are carried along.

“When you are introducing an innovation, a technology, you also know that the thing is going to be run by people so the people aspect needs to be tackled.

“We want to ensure that we are all running this race together, if not at the same pace, but at a considerable pace so that at the end of the day we will get full benefits of what we are introducing,” Okungbowa said.

E-governance system, the head of service, said would address the case of loss files as well as speed up service delivery.

“When you are using e-gov, you don’t need to move away from your desk. Right where you are, with a click, you get your message seen and of course, the same way they come, you can send it out.

“There is also a module called expense module. The expense module is very unique. It is becoming one of my best modules because it captures the budget of the MDAs.

“Once you are using your money from the expense module, the module tells you what you have left,” he said.

Corroborating the head of service, Mr Goodluck Igbinedion, Managing Director, Edo Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) said the innovation would make governance seamless.

“It takes care of missing files and no file will stay more than 48 hours on any desk. This will not only ensure accountability, but high efficiency in public service delivery

“It’s easy to track whoever leaks public documents. It will aid sincerity and transparency in governance,” said Igbinedion.