Minister lists risk of unregulated technology influx

The Minister of Communications, Dr. AbdurRaheem Adebayo Shittu, has warned against unbridled influx of technology application in the nation’s marketing and electoral communication sectors.

He gave the warning in Abuja at the maiden the maiden edition of the Electronic Campaigns and Marketing Summit (eCAM 2018), with the theme: “The Role of ICT in Electoral Process Management & Marketing Communications”.

“While these technologies open up new frontiers and offer new possibilities for the electoral process management and marketing communications, especially for voting operations, there may be unforeseen risks involved, such as an increase in vote selling, difficulty in auditing election results or inventory management.

“Careful consideration also needs to be given to the risks of inappropriate or untimely introduction of technology, especially if it has the potential to compromise transparency, local ownership or sustainability of the electoral process,” Shittu said.

According to him, Information and Communication technology is present in Nigeria’s activities related to the electoral process management and marketing communications, and that in the nation’s current case, it is essential to the conduct of elections.

“The complexity level of ICT used for the administration of elections around the world varies enormously. The rate of technological change is so high that election management body (EMB) must regularly reevaluate their use of technology to determine whether they should adopt new or updated technology to improve performance,” he said.

The Minister added that when the power of technology is harnessed, the investments pay off exponentially.

He added that gone were the days when the focus of ‘digital’ was largely limited to online services, but that today’s reality is much more complex, thus agencies must grapple with multi-channel processes, fastmoving delivery and access technologies enabled by social computing, cloud services, analytics, and mobile devices and apps.

Speaking earlier, the Group CEO, Consolidated Alliance, eCAM Services, Mr. Lucky Kanu, said the summit was aimed at addressing the role of Information and Communication Technology in electoral process management for the Nigeria’s General Elections in 2019. their