As part of President Bola Tinubu’s drive to modernise Nigeria’s public sector, the Federal Government, announced that it is bent on achieving a target 80% on its plan to digitise government processes by 2025.
The digitalisation initiative aims to “enhance efficiency, reduce corruption, improve transparency, and align Nigeria’s public sector with global best practices in e-governance.”
Speaking at the launch of a digitalisation training programme for staff of the Office of the Vice-President, the Deputy Chief of Staff to the President in the office of the Vice President, Senator Hassan Hadejia underscored the urgent need to transform government operations through digital technologies.
“If you don’t go digital, you get to a point where you will even fail to integrate with the rest of the world,” Hadejia stated. “Everybody is moving ahead, and you have to get to that level where you can at least get that connectivity.”
He emphasized the importance of enforcing compliance across all Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) to ensure the success of the initiative. “Compliance has to be enforced because if you wait for everybody to be ready, you will not achieve the goal,” he said. “If you have a situation where you are forced to present your requests or responses in a digital format, everybody will be forced to comply.”
Referencing the judiciary’s successful adoption of digital processes, Hadejia noted: “Surprisingly, the judiciary is almost at the forefront of digitisation now. It simply happened because several years ago the Supreme Court said it will not tolerate paper processes from lawyers anymore.”
The initiative marks a significant step towards modernising Nigeria’s public sector, promising improved governance and greater integration with global digital standards.