Nigeria and six foreign countries will be participating and showcasing their e-Government experiences at this year’s Nigeria e-Government Summit that is geared towards accelerating online presence of the Nigerian government at all levels. The foreign countries include France, South Africa, Egypt, Kenya, Malaysia, and Ethiopia.
Given the global shift from physical transactions to online transactions as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, organisers of the annual Nigeria e-Government Summit have said they would focus more on policies, strategies, solutions and technologies that would be required to achieve accelerated eGovernment deployment at the federal, state and local governments’ levels, and to make government’s online presence felt by all Nigerians. The annual Nigeria e-Government Summit, scheduled to hold November 17, in Lagos, has the theme: “COVID-19: Impetus for Accelerated Adoption of e-Government.”
The Executive Chairman, DigiServe Network Services, and convener of the summit, Mr. Lanre Ajayi, said: “We are assembling world-class technology experts and solution providers to share their experiences and showcase latest innovations applicable to e-Government service deployment. We are also inviting top government officials not only to learn from foreign experts but also to share their own experience and showcase the state of e-Government services deployment in their respective governance domains.”
According to him, the ongoing pandemic had profoundly brought to the fore the significant roles technologies could play in our lives. Without much advocacy, citizens migrated a number of their daily activities online. Commerce moved online with many people now buying and selling on the internet, students now obtain lessons online, even patients are consulting with doctors online.
“Technologies have served Nigerians very well in this trying period of the pandemic in many more areas including governance. Governments now hold cabinet meetings online and taxes can now be paid online,” Ajayi said.
He, however, expressed his dissatisfaction over the rate of adoption of technologies in governance, which he said, remained still very low. “Citizens still have to visit government offices to obtain most services and service delivery has been less than satisfactory. The need for government to accelerate the deployment of e-Government services, has become more pronounced and there cannot be a better time than now, when awareness about e-Services by citizens is at its peak,” Ajayi said.
He assured Nigerians that this year event would be more exciting than the last year edition which was acclaimed to be very successful and with huge positive feedback. A special addition to this year’s event is the invitation of experts from countries where e-Government has been adjudged to be successful to give country case studies. We are confident that the Nigeria e-Government Summit 2020 will add huge value to participants, sponsors, speaker and exhibitors, Ajayi further said.
– Thisday