The Honourable Minister of Communications Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr. ‘Bosun Tijani has announced the launch of a new initiative, #DevsInGovernment, in a bid to build a digitally empowered Civil Service for Nigeria. According to the Minister in a post on his ‘X’ page, #DevsInGovernment is a community of technologists and tech enthusiasts in public service who will collaborate to drive efficiency in the delivery of public services.
This community is expected to assist in championing the country’s Digital Public Infrastructure initiative aimed at transforming public services.
In a short video clip, he talked about the initiative: “We understand that the biggest challenge in building digital public infrastructure is not really the technology. We already know about a lot of the technologies that work and we have examples all over the world on how to build digital public infrastructure.”
“The real challenge is in empowering and supporting our technical workforce in the Civil Service to actually, be able to support the introduction of these technologies, the deployment of these technologies and in some cases to ensure that we can continue to service and support those technologies to help the service deliver to the public. This is why we are creating the first of its kind community, I believe, in Nigeria if not in the whole of of Africa which is a community of Technologies in civil service but also Tech enthusiasts as well people who believe in the power of technology to transform government services.”
“When we empower these people, when we create the community as a platform for Serendipity a lot will happen. They can collaborate they can share their pains together; they can access resources together and we can also focus on supporting them with continuous personal development as well just to ensure that even as we aspire to deeply use technology that we have the workforce to also back them as well.”
Dr. Tijani concluded his talk by inviting civil servants to the inaugural event which will be held on Thursday, February 1st, 2024. The theme of the event is “Talent, Technology, and Transformation” and it will bring together key stakeholders from the government, Tech, and Private sector to discuss the role of technology in transforming the Nigerian Civil Service. The event will also feature keynote speakers, panel discussions, and networking opportunities.
To register for the event, click here
