ABUJA, Aug. 23,
(Xinhua/GNA) – Cooperation between China and Nigeria further yielded a positive
result on Thursday, following the graduation of a total of 935 Nigerian civil
servants who had undergone a training program on information and communications
technology (ICT) by Chinese technology giant Huawei.
The training, tagged
“ICT for Change”, commenced in January and ended in June, was held in
19 batches. It aimed at training Nigerian civil servants on core ICT capacity
and boost e-governance in the country.
The participants
were drawn from various federal ministries, departments, and agencies,
following a memorandum of understanding signed last October by the Nigerian
government and Huawei Technologies Company Nigeria Limited.
Boss Mustapha, the
secretary to the government of the federation, described the initiative as one
which signifies a further collaboration between government and private sector
organizations in Nigeria.
He said the training
programme supported the area of automation of civil service processes while
limiting bureaucratic procedures to ensure effective and efficient service
delivery.
“This gesture
is highly commendable and we look forward to more of such programmes that seek
to complement Federal Government’s commitment to deliver good governance,”
Mustapha said.
Minister of
communications Ali Isa Pantami said the training program became necessary for
civil servants to improve their ICT skills in order to face the challenges
ahead.
According to
Patanmi, who is also an ICT expert, nothing can be achieved in governance if
the capacity of civil servants is not being developed.
“That is why
this training is key and we are making efforts to make sure that we lift
millions of Nigerians from poverty. One of the easiest ways to do this is
through ICT capacity building,” he said.
Speaking to Xinhua
at the graduation ceremony, some of the participants at the training program
said they were proud to be among civil servants who would pioneer and make
effective Nigeria’s digitalization goal of phasing out the use of paper in the
future and adopt the digital means of processing data, as Nigeria aspired to
become a smart country.
With the
ever-widening spread and the adoption of ICT across the globe, civil service
everywhere is confronted with more and more ICT-related challenges in
formulating and implementing policies, said Zhou Pingjian, the Chinese
ambassador to Nigeria.
Zhou noted the
efforts made by the Nigerian government in partnering with Huawei to enhance
ICT capacity-building for civil servants, was one of the eight major
initiatives to boost China-Africa cooperation announced at the Beijing Summit
of the Forum On China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) held last September.
China remains
committed to enhancing exchanges and cooperation between competent authorities
between the two countries, sharing good practice in each other’s ICT
development, the envoy added.Â
GNA
