NITDA says MDAS work in Silos, neglect egovernment

MINISTRIES, Departments and Agencies (MDAS) of government in the country are operating in silos, thereby making nonsense of e-government policy, Dr Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, director-general, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), has said.

Pantami, at the opening ceremony of the Stakeholders’ Engagement on Nigeria’s e-government Interoperability Framework (NeGIF) in Abuja, said that ‘’Silo eGovernment systems would not help government deliver public services efficiently. Advanced phases of service innovation cannot be achieved without integrating many back-office functions.

‘’For instance, registering a Limited Guarantee Company in Nigeria requires visit to at least three institutions: CAC, FIRS, and Attorney General of the Federation physically and/or through their portals. However, the Nigerian government is becoming more complex and wide-reaching than ever before and citizens believe and expect that public services must be delivered effectively and at speed. This is inefficient, inconvenient, time consuming and makes citizens pay more’’, Dr Pantami said.

He said through robust eGovernment applications, it is possible to make the transactions and get the service delivered on a single portal, adding that citizen-centered service delivery involves breaking up silos, integrating across agencies, innovating new ways of doing business, and creating a servicefocused culture.

According to him, it has been proven that one of the strategic directions for e-government is to adopt a Whole-of-government (WOG) approach for deriving expected value from IT.