E-Government: Nigeria, Korea commence implementation of architecture framework

The Nigerian Government in collaboration with the Republic of Korea have commenced the implementation of the Enterprise Architecture (EA) Framework for the second phase of the National e-Government Master Plan (NeGMP)

The pilot implementation process started with a 5-day training for the four selected Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) in Abuja, the nation’s capital

The MDAs are; the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS). National Identification Management Commission (NIMC), Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) and the National Information Technology Development Agency, NITDA

They were approved by the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy Prof Isa Pantami to be used for the pilot implementation of the EA project.

The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) Office in Nigeria organized the training for the selected MDAs

According to the Director General of NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa, who was represented by the Acting Director, Digital Economy, Salisu Kaka the EA Framework is aimed at helping the Federal Government through its MDAs to seamlessly navigate the digital transformation journey and prepare the country for the future of the digital economy.

He said the four MDAs used for the pilot are to be the pace setters and will be used to benchmark the implementation process for all MDAs in the country.

Korean EA expert and Nigerian EA project lead, Professor Park Byeong during a presentation at the training said; “EA defines business and Information Technology (IT) blueprint and architecture in each different view using abstraction.”

He explained that the EA concept was started in 1987 by John Zachman who raised a need to express a conceptual framework for the integration and linkage of information systems and named it Architecture Framework.

Prof Byeong added that the evolution of the EA which was initially Information System Architecture (ISA) in 1987, presented a solution to the increasing complexity of information systems. In 1992, it became Information Technology Architecture (ITA) which was used as a tool for the systematic management of IT in the 1990s, and then, in 2000, it became EA which was extended to include the whole enterprise as a focus area.

The second phase of the e-Government project slated for 2020 – 2026 aims to build a foundation for digital governance in Nigeria.

PIAK