Gov. Otti Flags-Off State Dedicated Internet Access/Wide Area, Managed Network Project .
Gov. Otti Flags-Off State Dedicated Internet Access/Wide Area, Managed Network Project
Abia State Governor, Dr. Alex Otti has officially flagged – off the Abia State Dedicated Internet Access/Wide Area and Managed Network project to support digital governance in the State.
Speaking at the Kickoff ceremony of the initiative, held at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Secretariat, Governor Alex Otti who titled his speech, “The Digital Transformation Journey Begins”, said that the goal is to improve governance deliverables by empowering civil servants to do their jobs in a result oriented way.
According to the Governor,
“This project is the first phase of a carefully coordinated programme of digital infrastructure layer and integration and will involve the acquisition and distribution of thousands of high performance digital tools and devices across Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government. Laying of fibre optic cables within the spaces of State owned public institutions.
“Our goal is to improve governance deliverables by empowering civil servants to do their jobs in a result oriented manner,” Gov. Otti stated.
“The direct and medium term goals will include the streamlining of the bureaucratic structure of the civil service, faster turnaround time, effective document archiving and tracking, objective data driven performance management processes and the gradual elimination of the structures that impede personnel and institutional productivity.
The Governor said that attention would be given to the training and retraining of the personnel.
“Sufficient resources have already been earmarked for capacity building programmes. We want to achieve seamless deployment across all service institutions across the State.
“Going forward, certain levels of efficiency with the use of relevant technology shall now be required as a necessary condition for exposure to new opportunities and promotions in the civil service.
“While the state will avail its employees all the right support to scale their IT systems knowledge, it is incumbent on everyone to appreciate that the old era of operational inefficiency is gone for good.
“You either upskill and grow or become uncompetitive and stagnant. This is not to threaten anyone, this is just to call your attention to the need for you to open yourselves up to the new technology. If you resist technology, technology will resist you,” Gov. Otti emphasised.
In his speech, the State Head of Service, Mr. Benson Ojeikere, who described the day as a special one for civil servants in the State, said that by the time the project is completed, the Abia civil servants would be the happiest workers in Nigeria.
He thanked the Governor for given the civil service a priority and recognising it in his transformational agenda as well as assured of improved service delivery.
“With the way we are committed to our work, the sense of diligence, the sense of urgency, the sense of integrity and the kind of hunger to deliver on our expectations that would start showing, would be one way that we would show the Governor that we are not taking this special initiatives for granted.
“We are actually going to reciprocate by moving the service to the next level; beyond what has never been experienced in this country,” Mr. Ojeikere assured.
Earlier, the Chief Information Officer to the State Government, Mr. Gerald Ilukwe noted that a government network is a foundation of any digital government programme and said that the project is a major milestone in the transformational agenda of Governor Otti’s government.
He assured all MDAs whose offices are not yet covered in the current phase of the initiative that it would benefit in the second phase.
“This phase one is focusing on the multi-tenant building complexes that have many MDAs in them in the first instance. Even as we are rounding off this one, we are going to start the next one.
“By the end of this service year, the entire government ecosystem in Abia will be linked up to one interconnected network,” Ilukwe stated.
He assured also that workers would be able to transact their operations in a manner that is more secured than the manual paper works, saying that the initiative would be completed and commissioned in 5 weeks’ time.
The Group Managing Director of IPNX, Mr. Ejovi Aror expressed gratitude to the Governor for granting them the opportunity to be part of the transformative initiative.
“This partnership signals the beginning of a new chapter in the journey towards building a digitally connected, technologically advanced and economically empowered Abia State,”
He said that the initiative would facilitate efficient service delivery and assured that they are committed to providing seamless productivity which is essential to unlocking the full potential of any economy, adding that they would work closely with the government to ensure the success of the initiative.
The Kickoff ceremony was attended by Honourable Commissioners and senior Government appointees including civil servants.
Ctz. UKOHA NJOKU UKOHA
Chief Press Secretary to the Executive Governor of Abia State