Pantami Lauds S/Korean On Digital Governance Initiative In Nigeria

Minister of communications and digital economy, Prof Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami has on Wednesday commended the South Korean Government for their efforts and contributions towards the advancement of digital governance in Nigeria.

This came as the Republic of Korea through its grant aid agency, the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) Office in Nigeria in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy (FMCDE) conducted a one-week digital governance invitational program for high-level government officials to South Korea from October 30 to November 05, 2022.

The training was part of project activities under the Project for Building Foundations Towards Digital Governance in Nigeria (2020-2026/$13M).

In addition, the Nigerian Ambassador to South Korea, Ambassador Ali Magashi highlighted at the forum that the cooperation between Nigeria and South Korea had taken new heights owing to the recent visit of President Buhari to South Korea and the invitational program will further solidify the recent achievements recorded within Nigeria’s digital economy in recent times.

He said the programme provided the 21-member Nigerian delegation with the opportunity to learn from Korea’s experience and expertise in digital governance towards the expansion of digital governance in Nigeria, saying the Nigerian delegation took part in a number of workshops, including the 8th Global Leadership ICT Forum attended by high-level officials of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the World Bank Group (WB), the Black Sea Economic Cooperation(BSEC) and partner countries.

“During the visit, the Nigerian delegation undertook study tours to the National Information Resources Service managing the South Korean government’s integrated data centres and some historical sites”.

Other members of the delegation included the head of civil service (HoS) of the federation, Dr. Folasade Yemi-Esan, the chairman of the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC), Prof. Adeolu Olumide Akande, the chairman of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Dr Abubakar Sa’id, the director-general of NITDA, Inuwa Kashifu Abdullahi, the managing director of Galaxy Back Bone, Prof Muhammad Bello Abubakar, the director-general of the National Identity Management Commission, Engr. Aliyu Aziz Abubakar, the vice chancellor of the Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Prof Nnenna Nnannaya Oti and the vice chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University, Prof Kabiru Bala, among other members of the 21-member Nigerian delegation.