The maiden edition of e-governance conference held at Sheraton Hotel, Ikeja, Engr. Lanre Ajayi who is the Executive Chairman DigiServe Network Services shed light on the calibre of speakers present for the conference and urged participants to visit the exhibition stands to keep themselves abreast of the recent trends and development. He highlighted that the country is facing a lot of challenges that need to be addressed and the solutions lie in technology.
Engr. Shola Teniola, President, Association of Telecoms Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) stated that the event was to discuss technology and its application to the government and citizens. He stressed the critical role of the industry to the change and disruptions being experienced.
Dr Ernest Ndukwe who is the Chairman, Board of Directors, MTN, said we have over 150 million lines in the country but without infrastructure and the enabling environment, it is difficult to talk about mainstream. He further said that people are now working remotely due to technology and this he agreed is the future. He, however, stated that Nigeria’s government has been slow in adopting ICT to its governance. The lacuna he expressed goes to the root, citing that it has been a challenge for the state government to adopt technology even in something as basic as creating or managing a functional website. He mentioned that this challenge exists in almost all government parastatals.
To cap it, he stated that the government needs to adopt mainstream ICT as they do not have an alternative because very soon the world will leave us behind. He expressed that he is looking forward to the day when countries in the world would not need passports to travel because the whole process would be digitalized using a database system. He emphasized the challenges that a lack of digital database poses for different sectors. For tax collection, he stated that technology can solve 80 – 90 % of the challenges experienced. He used all these to emphasize the need and benefits of a technologically-driven society. He concluded by saying that the government officials present at the conference should take note and incorporate the solutions and recommendations proffered into their administration.
