South Korea to Spend N1.4 Billion on E-Government in Nigeria to Promote Efficient Public Services

ABUJA (NAN) ─ The South Korean government says it is committing 8.6 million dollars (about N1.4 billion) to the promotion of e-government and efficient delivery of public services in Nigeria.
 
Hung Park, Head of South Korean E-government delegation to Nigeria, disclosed this at a Forum of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Wednesday. 
 
Park said the project would be implemented by the Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) in partnership with the Federal Ministry of Communication Technology and the Public Service Institute (PSI). 

“It is a five-year master plan; after the development of the master plan, implementation will follow. 
 
“The objective of this e-government project is to help positively affect development by strengthening the efficiency and transparency of the public administration services, promoting the ICT industry and reducing the transaction cost and allocating the resources efficiently and increasing the productivity in line with Nigeria’s vision 20:2020.” 
 

Park also said that Nigerian experts in the Information Communication Technology (ICT) industry had been invited to contribute to the project master plan.

“We need more experts from the Nigerian side because we don’t know the Nigerian culture and administration so that we can understand the current situation and what the government has done so far. 
 
“We need strong cooperation with Nigerian experts not only from the government side but also from the private sector as well.” 
 
The South Korean official explained that the project`s three major components would ensure improvement in productivity and government administration. 
 
“There are three components; the G to G area, that is the government to government; there is the G to B, that is government to business, and G to C, that is government to citizens.
 
“All these services delivery will be performed electronically and that means it can raise the efficiency of public services and also through e-government, we expect cost reduction, so it results to improvement in productivity and government administration.”
 
Park recalled that the implementation of e-government policies in Korea assisted the country immensely, especially in the area of industrial development and business process innovation.
 
He said that e-government had contributed positively to the development of politics, economy, and the society of Korea. 

Photo Credit: NAN-PHOTO