Remote Meetings: Konn3ct Meets National Policy Requirements On Virtual Engagements

An indigenous technology firm, New Waves Eco-Systems, developer of Konn3ct virtual conferencing solution, said it has met all the rigorous requirements contained in the National Policy of Virtual Engagement in the federal public institutions.

The recently adopted National Policy on Virtual Engagements in Federal Public Institutions seeks to institutionalise frameworks and standards within Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) of government as well as publicly owned companies using virtual engagement as an administrative procedure in service.

This policy which is in line with the Nigeria e-Government master plan was developed through a consultative process involving the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation and the Federal Ministry of Communication and Digital Economy towards ensuring its effective implementation across the public service with consequent accruable benefits.

Mr. Femi Williams explained that his company had made all the required investments to meet all the requirements of the National Policy on Virtual Engagements in Federal Public Institutions.

“Konn3ct is the only virtual conferencing platform that has met all criteria for the new virtual engagement tool in Federal public institutions. Konn3ct is the only certified indigenous cloud-based virtual engagement solution in the market today. Konn3ct is registered by NITDA and installed on the Galaxy Backbone system, the federal government network,” he explained.

A technology and open government expert, Mr. Emeka Okoye, said the adoption of Konn3ct as a preferred virtual meeting platform would be groundbreaking because it would enable Nigeria to set agenda for a local collaborative economy that would bring about increased productivity, new ideas, new ventures, and local development.

“Let’s not forget that it will bring down the cost of doing business in both our businesses and government,” he enthused.

According to him, Konn3ct adoption can also increase the use of local clouds and increase data flows to Nigeria as well as encourage local development of technology stacks.

The document covers eight thematic areas and proposed strategies to achieve them through robust and successful virtual engagements.

The head of service among other things must ensure that virtual meetings and engagements within the public service adopt the best technology available that guarantees versatility, interoperability, and security of government information and data, in line with the provisions of the Nigeria Cloud Computing Policy and the Guidelines for Digital Asset Management in Public Institutions.

The head of the civil service must ensure that participants for every virtual meeting are identified, notified, and invited formally within and from other MDAs and those virtual meetings are run on the government’s network for maximum security.

In addition, the head of service must ensure that the government-owned hosting platform is considered for confidential meetings so that all virtual engagements are not in breach of government regulations such as the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation (NDPR).

The policy also directed the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, through NITDA and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to facilitate the development of indigenous cloud-based virtual engagement solutions for use in the public service.

Targeting a fraction of the Indian $250.222 million video conferencing market, Konn3ct was launched in the Indian market in 2022.

“We are ready to provide a secure, functional, and optimal virtual solution to all meetings and engagements in the federal public service. We are a proudly Nigeria firm and we are already flying the Nigerian flag in the hugely competitive global virtual meeting market,” Williams enthused.