By Daniel Tyokua
The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) said plans are in progress to digitalize its workforce across all the Secretariat, Department and Agencies (SDAs) in line with global trend.
Speaking at a workshop on sustainable innovation, Director in the office of Permanent Secretary Federal Capital Territory Administration, Samuel Atang said the administration would stop at nothing to move its service from analog to digitalize.
He asked the over 3,000 staff trained in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to upgrade FCTA ICT to a world class standards.
Atang said the best cities in the world are technologically driven, which he called on the younger generation of the FCT work force to always think technology for the overall interest of the territory.
“We have to think out of the box, we have to work extra to be able to meet up with the emerging challenges of public service management globally, innovations are emerging everyday that passes by, each day that passes by people are coming up with different technology, different approach to issues and we need to adjust to meet up.
“FCTA is strategically positioned as the seat of the government of the Federation and our expectation is to be among the best world class cities.And the best capital cities in the world today are technically driven”.
Dr Jumai Ahmadu, acting Director, Reform Coordination and Service Delivery, said the goal was to make service processes in the FCTA easier and leave no one behind in the technologically driven world.
“To this end, we sent out a call circular for management approval for staff to come up with innovative ideas on how we can carry out our functions effectively and efficiently in a very cost-effective manner.
“The entries are here this morning, and we are here to analyse what the staff have done.
“The evaluation team will take a few days to go through the entries and fish out those that are workable for the FCT Administration to adopt at a minimal cost but have efficient and effective outcomes.
“The Innovation Expo was, therefore, organised to evaluate the entries from the staff who are the drivers of innovations,” she said.
In his remarks, Mr Austine Okafor, Director of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), FCTA, said that the administration was building the ICT infrastructure from the ground up.
Okafor said that FCTA was currently building internet connectivity to connect all Secretariats, Departments and Agencies (SDAs) in collaboration with Galaxy Backbone with a base in Area II, Garki, Abuja.
“This is to make sure that every department is connected. That is the baseline technology we want to bring. After that, we will roll out the digitisation programme such that every SDA will be connected.
“Right now, we are moving with paper, files, and documents, but by the time we finish, we will move from that level to paperless.
“We are training our staff on basic ICT skills and so far, more than 3,000 staff have been training and it is going to be a continuous exercise.
The director said that the FCTA would go paperless by December 2025, and advised any staff that is not ICT compliant to either shape in or you shape out.
On his part, the acting Director, Human Resource Management, FCTA, Mr Akinkunmi Ogunniran, assured that the administration was working to ensure that those managing the federal capital were ICT ready.
Ogunniran added that FCTA was doing so much to ensure that all the platforms and resources that may be needed for this new culture of ICT were put in place.
“The city management, infrastructure, and development processes are all going to be automated and we are getting set for it and those who felt they have nothing to do with ICT will fall by the wayside,” he said.
