Abia State Governor, Dr. Alex Otti has officially flagged-off the State Dedicated Internet Access/Wide Area and Managed Network project to support digital governance in Abia State.
Speaking at the flag-off ceremony of the initiative held at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Secretariat Umuahia, Governor Otti who titled his speech, “The Digital Transformation Journey Begins”, explained that the goal is to improve governance deliverables by empowering civil servants to do their jobs in a result oriented way.
The Governor disclosed that the 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 with 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. 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.” Gov Otti stated.
The State Chief Executive noted that attention would be given to the training and retraining of the personnel.
“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.
In his speech, the Abia 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.
“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 in his address, 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.
Mr Ilukwe 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 Governor Alex Otti for granting them the opportunity to be part of the transformative initiative.
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 ceremony was attended by the Secretary to Abia State Government, Prof. Kenneth Kalu, Chief of Staff to the Governor, Pastor Caleb Ajagba, Commissioners, top government officials, civil Servants among other notable personalities.
