Tag: information technology

Posted on August 3, 2016 at 11:47 pm

As a build up on the post on digitizing the Nigerian government, this here is to give some additional details on how the government can raise a team of technology professionals at a mild expense of under 300 million naira per year within the next 3 years.

 

The Special Information Technology (SIT) 50 Task Force

From recent projects embarked on by the Nigerian government, one could tell that there are concerns about technology development in the country. However, it is important that the Federal Government (FG) spearheads this drive for technology adaptation within itself for starters. It is as simple as saying “practice what you preach”, “lead by example”.

Tons of government processes are painstakingly slow due to lack of technological adaptation by the FG. Interestingly, the kinds of technology needed to accelerate these processes are not even close to rocket science; but largely within the skill set of Nigerian technology experts in the country. It is better we start this NOW, rather than delay the inevitable.

We must begin to extend & modernize current government ICT infrastructure; with example models such as the UK and US e-Government strategies, the Nigerian government too can develop a single, unified government portal that will be capable of sharing public administration data openly.

Problem: Lack of empowered Technology experts within the government civil service

Beneficiary: The Nigerian government, Federal Ministry of Communication Technology and Nigerians.

Proposed by: Tomi Orunmuyi, ICT & Media Expert (Msc Telecommunication Systems Management –  Queen Mary University of London, BSc Electrical Engineering- University of Ilorin)

Idea Status: Pitch

HOW DOES IT WORK?

This proposition is to have the FG recruit a set of 50 technology professionals into the federal civil service with the aim of modernizing government processes by building new technology services using existing ICT infrastructure. The team will be expected to grow over the years and subsequently have some of its members absorbed into other government arms/agencies such as the Police, Revenue Service, etc

Eligibility: Only Nigerian indigenes with relevant technology experience & proven performance track records within the private sector, both home and abroad.

Organogram: The task force will be employed by the federal ministry of communications technology but report directly to the presidency in order to avoid unwanted hindrances such as unnecessary bureaucratic processes, politics and so on. The SIT task force will comprise of 50 professionals organised into four (4) units, each with team leads reporting to the Director of the task force.
The technical members of the task force will be placed across three (3) levels described below:
1. Specialist: These are absolute specialists in specific fields of interest and would mostly function as team leads. At least 8 years of relevant experience with a remuneration of 12 million per annum.
2. Senior Technology Expert: At least 5 years of relevant experience with a remuneration of 6 million per annum.
3. Junior Technology Expert: At least 3 years of relevant experience with a remuneration of 3 million per annum.

The units are described below:
1. Networking: This team is responsible for networking infrastructure for voice and data platforms. It will also have a sub unit responsible for IT security.
Size: 7 || (Team lead) Specialist (1)- 12m, Senior Tech (3)- 18m, junior tech (3)- 9m
ii. IT Security: these will be IT security professionals with certain members holding certifications similar or equivalent to CCIE security.
Size: 5|| Specialist (1)-12m, Senior Tech (2)- 12m, junior tech (2)- 6m
Team size: 12
Budget Per Annum: 69 million naira

2. Software development: This team will be made up of developers and testers, and responsible for back-end and front-end elements of technology platforms.
Size: 9 || (Team lead) Specialist -12m, Senior Tech (4)- 30m, junior tech (4)- 12m
ii. Database Administration: This sub unit will be made up of data acquisition, design & development. Responsible for collating and conversion of data formats, development of data structures, queries, and data optimization.
Size: 9 || Senior Tech (3)- 18m, junior tech (6)- 18m
Team size: 18
Budget Per Annum: 90 million naira

3. Information Systems: The team would comprise of General IT, Project Management, trainers, media & design.
Size: 7 || (Team lead) Specialist -12m, Senior Tech (3)- 18m, junior tech (3)- 9m
ii. System administration: These will be responsible for hardware setup and maintenance, system analysis, Facility management, and other system administration duties.
Size: 6 || Senior Tech (3)- 18m, junior tech (3)- 9m

Team size: 13
Budget Per Annum: 72 million naira

4. Administration & Planning: This team will handle Human resource management, general administration, planning & logistics. Admin (2)- 6m, Procurement (2)- 6m, Drivers (2)-1m
Director- 15m
Team size: 7
Budget Per Anum: 28 million naira
Total wages: 259 million naira per annum
Other costs: Rented Office space (Abuja & Lagos), Workstations, Fleet vehicles (2), maintenance, running costs. Estimated at 41 million naira

 

Deliverables:
Expectations within a year, the team will enable the ability to:
• Register a company online. Just like in the UK, it can be done in less than 24 hours without showing up physically- I did this myself
• Make Tax payments, government levies, traffic fines, etc., online without the need to show up physically at an office
• Perform company checks online at an affordable fee, to protect investor interests.
• Implement a unified government portal, to share public administration data openly.
• Implement a robust government Unified Communications System supporting IM, mail, voice and video communications.
Others areas to be aggregated and standardised are:
Population registries – individuals’ addresses
E-Health – personal health data / records, doctors’ licenses, prescriptions issued, health insurance cover
Social insurance registries – individuals’ benefits and claims
Land registries – address data
E-Police – traffic violations, missing persons and fugitives
Vehicle and driver registries – licences, traffic insurance coverage
Educational registries – educational records
Unemployment data – benefits and claims
Migration board – documents data

 

Full impact potential: Modernize the government’s public administration, taking services online and aggregating and standardizing them to gain efficiency.

Funding: The Nigerian Government || Collaboration with Private companies through CSR || Crowdfunding

Marketplace: e-Governance

 

Other interesting facts: According to the United Nations E-Government survey in 2014, The Republic of Korea ranked first in global e-government due to its continued leadership and focus on e-government innovation. It was overtaken by the United Kingdom in 2016.

Mauritius is the top performer in Africa, and ranked 58th worldwide. Nigeria is not in the top 10 ranking for Africa, and behind countries like Seychelles, Egypt, Botswana & Kenya.

Written by: Tomi Orunmuyi

Posted on August 28, 2015 at 5:25 pm

One cannot fail to overlook the poor state of Nigeria’s government websites. These websites are not only mostly contracted out to private firms for development but also poorly managed with varying attributes such as web Technologies, layouts and designs, nomenclatures and are often hosted outside the country. This current state of chaos needs to be addressed as soon as possible in order to facilitate proper access to government information and service.

 

Problem: Poor state of Nigerian Government Websites

Beneficiary: Nigeria

Proposed by: Tomi Orunmuyi, ICT & Media Expert (Msc Telecommunication Systems Management –  Queen Mary University of London, BSc Electrical Engineering- University of Ilorin)

Idea Status: Pitch

 

HOW DOES IT WORK?

First of all, put up a proper website for http://www.nigeria.gov.ng/ which currently has nothing!

Having a single point access to government information and services is quite important in this information age. It is therefore needed to aggregate all content currently available on all existing Government websites and ultimately enhance the intrinsic quality of the Government websites based on a set of predefined Guidelines and Policies.

The best way to ensure that this works is to build up web technology development capabilities within the government itself. This should not be difficult as there are Nigerians who possess the required skill-set to pull-off such a feat.

Judging by the current situation, it is very likely that Nigeria’s Ministry of Communication Technology and its agencies are incapable of managing Nigeria’s Government websites. It simply means that the wrong people are making the decisions. It only makes sense to restructure and hire of new able hands.

A Guidlines document for all Nigerian Government websites similar to what the Indian Government published in 2009 would go a long way in ensuring an acceptable level of standards. This should cover all areas relating to Design, Development, Hosting, Content Quality and Management.

 

It is essential that revamping Nigeria’s Government websites should not be seen as a one-time affair where it is achieved by contracting to private firms. It should be approached with the consciousness that it is a continuous project that needs to be reviewed frequently due to the ever evolving nature of web technologies.

In gathering the skills needed, the government should poach highly skilled and talented individuals from the private sector in order to build a formidable team of developers, designers and content managers.

This is also not the time to appoint some old Professors or PhD holders to head Technology teams that need to be dynamic and vibrant. In my opinion, the government is already filled with such academicians and we cannot categorically state that the country is better for it.

Some points to note:

Hosting: must be done IN NIGERIA. I know that galaxy backbone (A government owned establishment) provides web hosting services.

Development: No wordpress websites, please!

 

Full impact potential: Standardization and uniformity of Nigeria’s Government websites, projection of a better image of the Nigerian government on the internet.

Funding: Federal Government of Nigeria

Marketplace: e-Governance, Tourism

Other interesting facts:

As of the time the article was written, Nigeria’s government website has nothing meaningful on it.

In 2013, UK’s government website was named the Best Design of the Year by the Design Museum in London, beating out 99 shortlisted buildings, inventions, and cars for the honor. The video below was put together by Dezeen.com

Written by: Tomi Orunmuyi

Posted on July 1, 2015 at 12:25 pm

One cannot but stress how important it is for a 21st century government to be technology savvy. Technology simply automates processes created by people, hence, the Nigerian Government needs to embrace innovative technology in order to effectively cater for its corporate and consumer needs and in essence, deliver better services.

If properly implemented, technology can create more effective and cost saving management and operational models; and eventually create a slimmer, more responsive, transparent and agile form of bureaucracy within the system. One way of achieving this uphill task could be to seek partnership/ assistance of a foreign government such as that of Estonia, a country with a population of less than 2 million, according to Wikipedia, which is arguably the world’s most tech-savvy government. However, I am of the opinion that Nigeria’s private sector possesses the skills and man-power needed to make the Nigerian Government more tech-savvy; not by hiring contractors but by absorbing these able hands into the government’s work force.

Problem: A technologically backward Nigerian government

Beneficiary: The Nigerian government, Federal Ministry of Communication Technology and Nigerians

Proposed by: Tomi Orunmuyi, ICT & Media Expert (Msc Telecommunication Systems Management –  Queen Mary University of London, BSc Electrical Engineering- University of Ilorin)

Idea Status: Pitch

 

HOW DOES IT WORK?

Technology is crucial to establishing and running the country. Nigeria needs a public agency for central e-government solutions forming an Information System’s Authority. But first, the government needs to end mediocre projects. Some of my proposals are:

> Scrap ALL government website development contracts awarded to contractors. Why can’t these websites be built by the parastatals?

> Consolidate/review the ICT Ministry parastatals (Galaxy backbone & NITDA)- In my view, these parastatals are functioning below par and perform some similar services.

> Address the issue of incapacitated ICT graduates- The curriculum/syllabuses of ICT related taught programmes/courses in Nigerian Universities are globally not competitive and out of date, hence produces unemployable ICT graduates. Note that this is not even an infrastructure problem.

 

Digitalising the Nigerian Government is very crucial to achieving the goals of effectiveness and Transparency outlined by the new government. The following actions will be required:

• Build Data processing and storage infrastructure- Some of which already exist within a parastatal (Galaxy backbone).
• Build networking infrastructure (Government Intranet)- This will allow for solutions such as video conferencing for meetings, Voice Over IP for phone calls, etc.
• Employ/poach capable ICT professionals (developers, hackers, data scientists, digital artists, network engineers, network and data security experts, solutions architects, etc.)from the private sector.
• Make digital copies of all documents (the video below shows the digitization process of archives by the UK parliament recording team)

However, the items listed above do not come cheap! But this will create a path towards creating a self sufficient tech-savvy Nigerian Government.

It is very important to create a centralised point of government services and these can be achieved by taking the action points listed above. Some services that can result from this restructuring are:

• Population registries – individuals’ addresses
• Tax board – tax debts, declarations
• E-Health – personal health data / records, doctors’ licenses, prescriptions issued, health insurance cover
• Social insurance registries – individuals’ benefits and claims
• Business registries – representation rights, reports
• Land registries – address data
• E-Police – traffic violations, missing persons and fugitives
• Vehicle and driver registries – licences, traffic insurance coverage
• Educational registries – educational records
• Unemployment data – benefits and claims
• Migration board – documents data

 

Full impact potential: A Tech-savvy Nigerian Government, e-Platforms for Transparency and Validation, etc.

Funding: Nigerian Government

Marketplace: Information Technology, Governance

Other interesting facts:

The Ministry of Information website, as at 01-07-2015, still had a campaign of the former president of Nigeria, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.

Most of the federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) are currently hosting their webs and emails’ servers outside of the country, thereby making a mockery of the government.

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) website is hosted in the US. What a shame!

Written by: Tomi Orunmuyi, ICT expert

updated: 10/05/2016