Niger State Ministry of Communication, Technology and Digital Economy in collaboration with a private ICT firm Tech4Dev,(Technology for Development) has organized a one week long sectorial ICT training for civil servants nominated from Ministries and Agencies of the State government.
The ICT training was held at CBT centre, College of Education, Minna,over the weekend.
Declaring the training opened,the Head of Service,Niger State,Engineer Abubakar Salisu disclosed that plans are ongoing by the government to poll all ICT cadre officers to the Ministry of Communication and to be
re-deployed to other MDA’s.
Representated by the Permanent Secretary Public Service,Dr.James Kolo,emphasized that the importance of ICT in the contemporary society can not be over emphasized,adding that it is on record that two decades ago,the state brought the e-payment system into the civil service for payments of salaries,contract awards,scholarship bursary to students and tax administration among others.
Engineer Abubakar further stated that the government had earlier initiated the e-compliance training for the civil servants to be ICT savvy and made it mandatory skills to be acquired for daily office routine.
His words”.You cannot beat ICT but rather join ICT,hence,ICT carve you out in the system,let us all embrace this crusade and propagate the importance of ICT in our socio economic endeavors for the overall interest of the State”.He added.
In his keynote address,the Commissioner,Ministry of Communication Technology and Digital Economy, Alhaji Suleiman Isah noted that the essence of the training is to upskills the civil servants in order to be able to improve efficiency and service delivery.
Alhaji Suleiman explained that the training is a pilot system, pointing out that (3) persons were nominated from about 154 MDA’s in the state to participate in the training.
He said”. Based on the feedback from the three,government will know how to improve on the training before the training of next batch of 22 thousand civil servants”
Alhaji Suleiman expressed optimism that with the adoption of
E-governance,the training will be of help to civil servants.
The Commissioner urged the civil servants not to be afraid of technology or feel insecure about their jobs being taken over by technology, as it will rather improve their job functions and efficiency.
Earlier,the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Dr Abubakar Sadiq Musa,explained that the training was aimed to equip the civil servants with essential digital skills and knowledge that are crucial in the rapidly evolving digital economy.
He advised workers to equip themselves with necessary skills and knowledge to navigate and harness the power of technology for the betterment of their work and communities,noting that the knowledge and skills they acquired will not only benefit them individually but,will also contribute to the overall digital transformation of the State.
