The Director General, Bureau of Public Service Reforms (BPSR), Dasuki Ibrahim Arabi has said that Nigeria has shown high level of readiness to achieve digital transformation of the country.
He said with establishment of agencies such as Nigeria Communication Commission (NCC) and National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) to concretize the idea, the country is on the right path.
The DG was speaking on Saturday at the 2021 National Summit of Institute of Information Management (IIM) held in Abuja.
Dr Arabi who spoke on the topic: “Promoting the keys to data values through organisational data leadership in the era of digital transformation and economy”, said the discussion is timely and relevant, in view of the importance of the discussions on data and information management on Nigeria’s journey towards attaining digital economy.
He said, “Advanced and evolving technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data, Automation, Self-driving cars and Artificial Intelligence (AI), are projected to affect about 50 per cent of the world economy, and these are some of the outcomes of the application of digital technologies.
Digital transformation should be central and strategic among public sectors across the world, with ever-increasing citizen’s expectation around delivering greater efficiency, offering better services to the public and exploiting a greater range of modern technologies.
The present administration of President Muhammadu Buhari is trying to explore these potentials in all sectors, including in the area of ease of doing business, which made the country moved from the 170th position in 2017, up to 145th in 2018, based on the recent World Bank report.
“In today’s digital economy, organisations have access to more data than ever before. This data creates a foundation of intelligence for important business decisions. To ensure employees have the right data for decision-making, government agencies and private companies must invest in data management solutions that improve visibility, reliability, security, and scalability.
“Now, looking at it from the Nigerian experience, the move to ensure government Ministries, Departments, Agencies and Parastatals have joined other global colleagues, BPSR has been fully instrumental in the entire process.
“Little wonder, the country’s Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Isah Ali Pantami recently revealed that courtesy of digital transformation, Information Technology projects’ clearance saves Nigeria N22.8b in 4 years,” Dr. Arabi added.
On what BPSR is doing to support the country’s journey to digital transformation, the DG said they have recently unveiled Nigeria National Strategy for Public Service Reform (NSPSR) to that respect.
“Just recently, BPSR unveiled new Nigeria National Strategy for Public Service Reform (NSPSR) to provide a common vision for rebuilding and transforming of the federal public service in the country. The strategy is primarily a coordinating mechanism that will help the ongoing reforms across the public service in government MDAs,” he added.
