By Bridget Ikyado
Mr Dasuki Arabi, Director-General, Bureau of Public Service Reform (BPSR), has reiterated Federal Government’s support in strengthening digital services to provide timely and effective public service to Nigerians.
Arabi said this during a-one day training on National Digital Transformation and Data Protection Awareness, organised by the Institute for Information Management, on Friday in Abuja.
He said that the sensitisation training would help to improve digital literacy in the country.
“The awareness campaign organised by the Institute of Information Management (IIM) Africa, is to upscale and improve the digital literacy of the Nigerian public service.
“This gesture will no doubt improve transparency and accountability in the service and assist government with right quality and calibre of public service workforce relevant in this age,” he said.
According to him, digital literacy is critical to the growth and development of economies in developed and developing countries.
“It is also one of the most critical factors for enhancing good governance and service delivery.
“The national data transformation aims to improve the transparency, flexibility reliability and sustainability of digital services and to reduce digital service time and cost in line with the e-Govemment Master Plan.
“It also seeks to strengthen Public Private Partnership (PPP), support the private sector design and development of government services.
“It builds accountability and cooperation and improve Nigeria’s status and participation in the field of digital transformation,” he said.
Arabi, however , said that Nigeria had in 2019 rolled out the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation to safeguard digital contents, the rights of citizens and to keep Nigerian businesses competitive globally.
“There are many benefits to complying with data protection laws.
“Good protection makes good economic sense because it saves time and money and also shows citizens that you care about their information.
“It also builds trust, efficiency, prevents discrimination and reduces risk of harm to citizens.”
He said that the Institute of Information Management Africa is serving the growing community of data, information, records, documents and archives and management professionals.
“It is in line with the BPSR’s vision of a digital public service where data and innovation play pivotal role as we strive to achieve a world-class public service by the year 2025.
“The public service stands to benefit immensely from IIM as an institution in keeping abreast with information.
“And to also development strategy in relations to information management, security of information, adequate and effective information dissemination by training and re-training of personnel by the IIM.”
Arabi expressed gratitude to the IIM and its partners for working with the BPSR to improve the Nigerian public service.
Earlier, Mr Oyedokun Oyewole, the President and the Chairman Governing Council of IIM, explained that the awareness campaign was to imbibe global best practices in data management.
“The initiative actually started in 2020 and has been taken to different MDAs, educating government workers on the importance of data management.
“And also to ensure they have the basis of data management, basic knowledge and how that can harness data in ensuring they are going to be able to deliver on their individual mandates.”
Oyewole said the campaign was to further inform public servants on newly introduced services and needs.
“This year, we also incorporated the data protection initiative campaign into this programme and that has afforded us the opportunity to raise awareness for various government agencies to be aware of the newly introduced Nigerian data protection regulation.
“Which is already in force and the Nigerian Data Protection Bureau is promoting it in Nigeria.”
Oyewole said that the awareness was necessary because any organisation that failed to take advantage of data in decision making and ensure that they are data driven, would not survive.
“Ultimately, we want the government of the day to support this initiative and ensure that it becomes institutionalised.
“And part of the way we expect the government to come in is by working with the institute and ensuring our bill at the National Assembly becomes law before the end of the year.”
The chairman called on relevant stakeholders to work towards achieving an environment and society driven by data, make decisions based on data and help to build a strong community of people.(NAN /vitalnewsngr.com)
