Ekiti
State Government has commenced partnership arrangement with
International Business Machines (IBM), aimed at strengthening and actualizing its goals in the information communication technology
(ICT) sector and e-governance.
According
to the IBM representatives and government officials, in the new
arrangement, the IBM team of experts in different fields who arrived
the state over the weekend, would work with Ekiti State officials in
different sectors of the state for the next one month.
Speaking
at a joint press conference by the representatives of Ekiti State
Government and the IBM team leaders in Ado Ekiti, the Permanent
Secretary, Bureau of Infrastructure and Public Utilities, Mr. Foluso
Daramola, said the IBM team would be working with the State
Government, the State University and the Civil Society on areas such
as Smart Governance, Citizen Information Management System and the
e-school projects.
He
said the partnership was also targeted at actualizing IBM's New
Initiative for Sustainable Development (NISD) through effective use
of ICT in the state.
He
explained that the partnership would examine the functionality of the
software applications provided by Microsoft and the hardware by
Samsung as well as develop online citizens register for the Social
welfare programme for the elderly citizens above 65 years old.
The
communication and work flow Automation developed under Smart
Governance applications, he said, would establish an
inter-governmental paperless system for all official documents.
In
her remarks, IBM's West African Corporate Citizenship and Corporate
Affairs Lead, Mrs. Remi Abere, said the company would be assisting
Ekiti State in working on e-education and e-governance by
transferring the company's skills and helping develop technological
capacity in the different sectors of government.
Abere
said special focus would be given to the education sector because of
the passion of the administration to revamp the sector and make it
take its lead.
She
said IBM chose Ekiti for the partnership in view of current efforts
by the Dr. Kayode Fayemi's led administration to drive development
through technology.
ThisDay
Nigeria