The director-general, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Mallam Kashifu Abdullahi has said the implementation of the service-wide enterprise content management (ECM) solution organised by the Office of Head of Civil Service of the Federation will help the Federal Government save about N4.5 billion annually.
Abdullahi made this assertion during his presentation at a one-day Service-wide Roundtable Workshop on ECM implementation with the topic “The Modalities of Software Clearance on ECM Solution for MDAs” in Abuja.
While emphasising the importance of ECM implementation, he said it is a critical success factor required by any enterprise to survive in this modern and competitive, post-Covid-19 world to aid information availability, agile business processes and conformity to governmental regulatory requirements.
Represented by the director, information technology infrastructure solutions (ITIS), Dr. Usman Abdullahi, the NITDA boss added that ECM addresses the limitations and provides the capabilities to effectively and efficiently manage the challenges imposed by the demanding business requirements of the modern world.
“It is expected that the ECM will resolve constraints such as complexity of massive volumes of variant data and information that exists in a broad array of formats, complex and extended business processes spanning across the business functions and partners around the globe, the need for integration and interoperability, fulfilment of compliance to legal and regulatory requirements.
“The Federal Public Institutions (FPIs) and other government establishments are not left out in this pursuit of digital transformation excellence, which is in line with the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy for a Digital Nigeria (NDEPS 2020-2030) as well as the Federal Civil Service Strategy and Implementation Plan 2021-2025 (FCSSIP 2021-2025).
“Digitalisation of government processes facilitates transparency, efficiency, productivity, participation, inclusiveness, cost savings and competitive advantage, which ultimately translates to social and economic development for a country like Nigeria. Therefore, digitalisation of government processes is no longer a choice, but a must for any country aiming for development. ECM is used to manage information throughout its lifecycle, in line with the digital services development and promotion pillar of NDEPS, among others,” he added.
According to the NITDA boss, some of the benefits of ECM to FPIs include saving employees time for mining information from physical paper documents, reduced cost of file storage and paper needs, and strengthening security by ensuring information confidentiality, integrity, availability and increase in regulatory compliance.
He referred to the Federal Government Circular No. SGF/6/S.19/T/65 of April 18, 2006, directed all Federal public institutions planning to embark on any IT project to obtain clearance from NITDA. This directive was reissued on August 31, 2018 with Circular Number 59736/S.2/C.II/125, reiterating the need for all FPIs and other government establishments to relate with and obtain clearance before embarking on any IT project.
Abdullahi noted that to ensure seamless implementation of this mandate, NITDA issued a guideline on IT project clearance in line with the need for a coordinated, standardized and orderly approach to the deployment of IT systems by FPIs.
He disclosed that a total of 258 projects from 97 FPIs amounting to a total investment of N152,043,373,117.25 were cleared, in 2021 and a total of N24,403,266,842.86 was saved for the government in the same year.
In consideration of the tremendous success of the IT projects clearance process, the Federal Executive Council, at its sitting on March 9, 2022, approved that FPIs must obtain a Quality Assurance Certificate from NITDA for any cleared IT project that is up to N1,000,000,000.00 or more, before the closure of the project. This is to further strengthen the value realisation of government investment in digital transformation.
In her opening remarks, the Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Dr. Folashade Yemi-Esan elaborated on some of the processes that have been engaged in the implementation of the ECM.
She stated that her office set up a culture change joint project committee in July 2020. The committee delivered the solution, reduced the status of ECMs in various Local Government Areas, did a review of the functional and technical requirements of the ECMs platform, developed a request for a proposal for the procurement of the service provider, and went ahead to develop standard operating procedures (SOPs) in the office of the head of the service and all other LGAs and have also looked at deploying infrastructural support for the effective implementation of ECM.
She added that a change and communication management team was established to conduct risk management of the ECMs and that 16 MDAs and staff in LGAs and the Office of the Head of Service, through the collaboration and support of the Federal Ministry of Communication and Digital Economy have already be trained.
