South Korea has reportedly signed a deal to train over 22, 000 public servants in Nigeria on e-government, according to Abdulaziz Abdullahi, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Communications.
The South Korean government is executing the training through the Korean International Corporation Agency (KOICA).
According to him, the partnership which is being facilitated by the federal government through the ministry will enhance the capacity of public workers in delivering their duties effectively. He explained that the training has been categorised into segments to accommodate all civil servants.
“The Executive Course I is for heads of government establishments; Executive Course II is for directors in public service; Professional Course for middle-level officers; e-Security for ICT technical staff and Train-the-Trainer for future potential trainers on the capacity building programme,’’ he explained.
Abdullahi also added that providing them with short and long-term training courses will further bring about the successful drive of the e-government programme by the government. The programme is aimed at bringing about ease of doing business within Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) as well as to strengthen government-citizen engagement.
Although, the country has made significant progress in e-passport processing, drivers licence delivery, company registration, but processes such as public procurement, tax payments, Customs clearance, security and intelligence among others are yet to be improved.
He, however, informed that Project Planning and Development has been added to the curriculum to manage e-government system in terms of procurement, grievance settlement and preparation in readiness for the implementation of the e-government master-plan that is awaiting Federal Executive Council (FEC) approval.
The Charge d’Affaires of the Korean Embassy, Mr. Song Yong-Min who was delighted about the partnership expressed readiness to work with Nigeria to improve the capacity of Nigerian workers in discharging their statutory duties efficiently in the public domain.
