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By Taiwo Oluwadare
The Minister for Communication, Barr. Adebayo Shittu has announced the Federal government’s plan to go digital by floating what he called e-governance to enhance government’s efficiency through ICT and digitization.
He spoke to Newspeakonline over the weekend at the induction of executive members of Tradesmen and Artisan Association of Nigeria, Oyo state Chapter in Ibadan, saying that South Korea was presently assisting Nigeria to train manpower on e-governance.
He said that a lot of countries in Africa including Kenya and Rwanda have digitized their governmental operations just like what is obtained presently in Nigerian banking system.
With e-governance, Shittu explained, Nigerians can obtain passport through internet and access information from government without visiting any government officials.
Regretting that the country was lagging behind in technological advancement, the minister stressed that “communication industry in any country is the fastest route to industrial development”.
He added:
“That’s why I embark on trips to many country where progresses in Information, Communication and Technology have been made like India, Korea and among other countries.
“My mission to these countries is to learn some of the progresses they have made so that we can replicate some of these progresses in Nigeria.
Benefit gained so far is that China has assisted Nigeria to get satellite and we are negotiating on how to get more satellites to enhance efficiency in Nigerian ICT so that we will not take our money to foreign countries where they get multiple satellites”