By Nekpen Maureen Nwine
Edo State Head of Service, Anthony Okungbowa Esq., has assured members of the State’s workforce that the novel e-governance initiative currently in force in the civil service will not rob civil servants of their jobs but would rather strengthen their capacity, as the purpose of e-governance is to provide for improved efficiency, effectiveness, accountability, transparency and speed in service delivery.
Okungbowa, while speaking with journalists recently in his office in Benin City, also said that e-governance will greatly reduce corruption in the service as secrecy will be phased out.
He applauded members of staff who have embraced the initiative to get acquainted with the features of the platform, and added that they would be the better for it.
According to the Head of Service, “This is the first time in the history of any State in the Federation where all MDAs in a particular State have been on-boarded. So, we are 100 percent on the e-governance platform. We have all 94 MDAs fully on-boarded.”
Speaking further, Okungbowa maintained that the e-governance initiative is the way to go in the digital era in order to get work done with more efficiency.
He also explained that getting the agencies on-boarded is only the first stage of the process as Edo State is about to embark on the second phase tagged ‘E-governance 2.0’.
According to him, the initiative is not an end in itself but a means to an end. He also noted that the Government has identified and trained 123 e-governance champions who will drive the 2nd phase of the project.
He further said that constant orientation and monitoring of staff is ongoing in order to get members of staff to own the process.
“There is constant monitoring across the MDAs to ensure compliance and appraise how members of staff are working on the e-governance platform” Okungbowa added.
E-governance is the application of information technology in information exchange within and between governments and their MDAs, as they deliver government services to citizens and other persons within a government.
