The Vice President, Senator Kashim Shettima, on Monday said the flag-off of the training on digitalisation of workflow processes in the State House was a fulfilment of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s promise to build an efficient workforce that is in tune with reality, leveraging technology.
The training, the Vice President added, is a compelling testament to the President’s steadfast adherence to the principle of leading by example.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Communications in the Office of the Vice President, Mr Stanley Nkwocha, said in a press release that Shettima was represented at the opening ceremony of the training programme for staff on the “Digitalisation of Workflow Processes in the State House” by the Deputy Chief of Staff to the President (Office of the Vice President), Sen. Ibrahim Hadejia.
According to the Vice President, the goal of leveraging opportunities in machine learning and artificial intelligence to transform the entire public service “can’t be actualized unless those tasked with executing the tasks are in tune with reality”.
He explained: “At the inception of this administration, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu articulated his promise to implement digital initiatives across seven pivotal areas: innovation, entrepreneurship, service provision, outsourcing, technology manufacturing, e-commerce, and the digitalisation of public service, underpinned by broadband and blockchain technologies.
“This can’t be actualised unless those tasked with executing the tasks are in tune with reality, and so this is a compelling testament to Mr. President’s steadfast adherence to the principle of leading by example.”
The VP further observed that the overwhelming paper-based bureaucracy within the civil service infrastructure is at odds with the demands of the present era.
He added: “It falls upon us to serve as the conduit to a system redefined by the frontiers of machine learning and artificial intelligence, a system that calls upon us to utilise our natural intelligence to its fullest extent, and a system that challenges us to compete to build an efficient workforce that reflects the dynamic realities of our time.
“The status quo is no longer tenable; the world as we once knew it is undergoing a profound transformation. Like us, policymakers in other parts of the world are embracing digital technology as a catalyst for restructuring operational processes and streamlining decision-making.
“We are fortunate to have a President who has declared that Nigeria will never be behind schedule in adopting disruptive technologies to improve our service standards, optimise expenditure, and accelerate responsiveness to the needs of our foremost customers—the Nigerian people. This revolution begins with us”.
Shettima assured that the training will equip staff to understand “the need for the digitalization of government processes, the procedures for handling sensitive government information, and how to respond to Nigerians seeking information from the government.”
Earlier in his welcome address, the Permanent Secretary in the State House, Engr. Olufunso Adebiyi, acknowledged the support of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu towards the training programme.
He said the Renewed Hope Agenda of the administration highlights the President’s vision for the Nigerian workforce, which is to improve productivity in public service through deliberate digitalisation of the workforce and the entire operations.
“It is in line with this commitment that this training programme was approved by the President. The significance of starting this programme from the State House cannot be overemphasised as this is where the vision of the President is operationalised and transmitted to the larger Nigerian public service for greater productivity and improved service delivery,” he added.
The goal, according to the permanent secretary, is to commence the process and scale it across the civil service, believing that it will improve service delivery and overall productivity in the public service.
Also speaking, the Director General of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Ambassador Ahmed Rufai Abubakar, noted that information management is central to national security and governance.
He said, “We hope that three things will be brought under focus in this training- acquiring the necessary skills and knowledge for efficient innovation, processing, transmission, storage, preservation and retrieval of information and data.
“The objective here is simply the improvement of manual systems, a better sense of organisation, first-class delivery of service and adoption of everything information technology offers for civil servants,” he stated.
He urged participants to take the capacity building programme seriously and give it the desired attention it requires.
Also present at the event was the Director-General of the State Security Service, Yusuf Magaji Bichi, represented by the Director of Training and Staff Development.
