BY: Justice Godfry
Ekiti State Government has expressed readiness to partner with information and communication technology companies in its goal to enhance citizens’ capacity and deepen e-governance offerings.
Already, the State is expecting partnership with global IT giants including Huawei Technologies.
The State Government will be working with the partners in areas such as Smart Governance, Citizen Information Management System, e-learning projects and equipping computer labs in schools.
Speaking to TechEconomy.ng at the 5th Nigerian Women in Information Technology (NIWIIT) Conference held in the State, the Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Evangelist Foluso Daramola, said, “We believe that in order to grow the knowledge economy we are talking about we need to actually capture students from the basic level. When we increase their interest in information and communication technology (ICT), they will do a lot to help in the development of the State. That is the reason we want to perfect the system. You can’t talk about ICT development without first capturing the attention of young people.
“They need to be competitive; they need to be assured that there is an ecosystem to absorb their solutions.
“We are even looking at a situation whereby some of them who may not be able to go beyond secondary school can still tap into ICT to better their worth. They can do exploits; ICT will afford them the platform for entrepreneurship”.
Asked when the projects are commencing in earnest, the Commissioner, said “Presently, we are conducting audits to ascertain what is on ground and other things that may be required to commence. We don’t want engage in half-baked projects because such things end up producing mediocrity in the system. So, the State is conducting an ICT infrastructure audit as an important process to build a solid process.
Evang. Daramola further expatiated on what the State intends to achieve through partnership with Huawei: “We are discussing with them in the areas of intervention. We have a number of programmes we are looking at carrying out in the State and we believe that Huawei can work with us as partners”.
Earlier, the Commissioner, told member of NIWIIT, who converged for the two-day conference and annual general meeting (AGM), that the State has prepared the ground for collaborations on capacity development for the citizens.
Source: TechEconomy.ng