FG Inaugurates Committee on e-Government Training Centre, NIGCOMSAT Board

The federal government, through the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Pantami has inaugurated a governing committee for the e-Government training centre to facilitate training of civil servants in digital skills in the country.

The committee which comprises members from relevant government agencies from Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Galaxy Backbone, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), and Public Service Institute of Nigeria |(PSIN) was inaugurated in Abuja recently.

The minister said in compliance with the directive of President Muhammadu Buhari to the ministry to ensure digitalisation process of government activities, the training centre would provide civil servants basic, intermediate and advance training skills based on the role they play in their various Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs,)

According to him, “In order to ensure that at least we implement the directives given to us. Firstly, we commissioned the centre, which has been handed over to us since November 2019 by KOICA, however, before formal handover we started using the centre to train civil servants.”

Pantami explained that government intended to establish training centres in the geo-political zones in the country to make it easier for civil servants to be trained in their zones.

Part of the terms of reference for the committee, is to establish the legal and regulatory framework requirement, review and monitor the operational procedure, and to provide a strategy to ensure the sustainability of the centre and oversea its implementation.

Others are to monitor and ensure the facility and technology management of the centre meets global standards and to develop and implement strategy towards attracting funding, collaborations and expanding the centre.

The committee is jointly chaired by the Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa, and the Managing Director of Galaxy Backbone Limited, Professor Mohammed Abubakar.

In a related event, the minister inaugurated the Chairman and members of the Nigerian Communications Satellite Limited (NIGCOMSAT) Board and urged them to ensure that the recently approved satellite infrastructure company and the satellite broadband and broadcasting company, take off immediately.

According to him, “These two companies are very apt and they came at the right time. You have to hit the ground running immediately because we are trying to ensure that NIGCOMSAT is not only competitive in Nigeria but at least in Africa and Asia”.
In his response, the Chairman of Nigerian Communications Satellite Limited (NIGCOMSAT), Yusuf Kazaure, thanked the minister for the expression of support and marching order along the line of the new vision for NIGCOMSAT.

“We will make effort to be part of the drive to achieve digital economy and look forward to create necessary partnership with the agencies within the ministry, other agencies outside the ministry as well as other ICT ecosystem,” Kazaure said.