South Korea to spend $13 million on second phase of Nigeria’s e-Government Project

The Republic of South Korea is to spend $13m on the second phase of the Nigerian e-government national master plan 2021-2026 through the Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA).

The Korean Ambassador to Nigeria, Kim Young-Chea while speaking at the official commencement of the “Project for Building Foundations towards Digital Governance for Nigeria” in Abuja, said Korea will spend the sum of $13m to develop capacity to further enhance the execution of the national e-government master plan.

Young-Chea who was represented by the country Director KOICA, Mr. Sungil Son read his speech saying, “With Today’s project funded by KOICA’s grant aid to the tune of 13 Million US Dollars, is expected to enhance capacity for the further execution of key initiatives of the National e-government Master Plan, competencies for the e-government service delivery, and the development of the Government Service Portal. It can also create increased access of the NIN enrolment for ordinary people.”

According to Young-Chea, “Korea’s success on the e-Government development is portrayed as one of the world’s best successful stories. Certainly, not every Korean e-government policy and intervention became successful, however, there were many other aspects of unique Korean experiences that could be adapted to suit other partner countries.”

The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, William Nwankwo Alo, said,  the successful implementation of the first phase of the project led to “the development of the national e-government master plan to guide the adoption and implementation of the e-government programme in the country, which was approved for implementation by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) in August 2019; and the conduct of e-government capacity building in various courses, for over One thousand four hundred (1400) public servants in both Nigeria and South Korea.”

According to Pantami, the second phase of the programme was developed to “enhance the capacity for the execution of e-government master plan with consulting services to presidential council on e-government, enhance the competency for e-government service through capacity building programmes, expand the delivery of government digital services through the enhancement of the government services portal (www.services.gov.ng) and create increased access for National Identification Number (NIN) enrollment through the establishment of additional NIN enrollment centres.”

He said what the ministry and KOICA are doing is in line with the federal government’s policy to use ICT to drive transparency in governance.

He used the opportunity to seek for more support from the Korean government.

“We hereby solicit your support in the implementation of the project, which promise to have boundless impacts on our Nigeria’s digital transformation agenda and national development.”

The Programme Director, KOICA, Nigeria, Professor Hung Kook Park, said Korea is hoping that by 2026, Nigeria should have moved from the 140th position in the e-government ranking to within the first 100.

“Currently Nigeria is ranked 140 in the world e-government index ranking but we want Nigeria to be below 100 by the year 2026. That is what we hope to achieve with this programme.” He said