Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State

By Jethro Ibileke

The Edo State Government has boasted that it would emerge as the first state in the country to have entirely shifted to a digital mode of administration.

The State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, disclosed this while declaring open a one-week digital transformation training programme for over 3000 workers.

He said the ongoing digital transformation programmes in the State will make Edo fully e-governed before 1 September, 2023,

The event is being held at the John Odigie Oyegun Public Service Academy, in Benin City.

The Governor who was represented by the Head of Service, Anthony Okungbowa, said the State is the most digitized in the Country.

He further noted that the government is working assiduously to ensure the delivery of all government services is digitised, transparent and seamless.

According to him, “Over the next few weeks, we would be having 3,000 personnel in the civil/public service trained on the use of computers. We all know that without the knowledge of computers, it is impossible to work on the edogov platform.

“The Governor has instructed that before September 1st, 2023, Edo State would become completely an e-governance State as no State in the Federation has been able to achieve half of what we have achieved.

“All these are to ensure that we succeed as we move to become the digital hub of Nigeria. We hope that all of us in this training today will contribute to that success.”

He continued: “The target is to 3,000 workers. The training will last for nine weeks. The objective is to ensure that all civil/public servants are trained on all that is required to make Edo State a digital State.

“We want to be the digital hub of this Country and as such the governor is investing massively in digitalization. The government is opening the digital space which is why we have a contract to extend fiber optic cables across the State to enable people to have access to the internet and expose their skills.

“Recently, the governor launched the digital policy to put the State in the forefront of digital technology and enable the State to have a sense of direction to help achieve a defined and definite result.”

The Governor further noted, “In the executive side of government, we have 10,050 staff but across the service, we have almost 38,000 people. The training is for the directors’ cadre. Every person with a deficiency in computer appreciation will get the training.

“The final output of this training is to see workers more proficient in the use and appreciation of the computer to enable them work effectively with the edogov platform.”