S. Korean Govt’s agency trains 204 Nigerians

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the graduation, the 6th edition, marked the end of the the training for participants, which started on Jan. 16.

Speaking at the ceremony, the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Communications, AlhajiAbdullahi Mashi, said that the training was targeted at building the capacity of Nigerians on e-Government.

According to him, the collaboration between the South Korean government, through KOICA and Nigeria’ s Federal Ministry of Communications, tends to bring about development in the country.

” The components of the project tends to bring about establishment of e-Government Master plan, which has been delivered and waiting for the Federal Executive Council’s (FEC) approval to make it a national agenda.

” The focus is on building the capacity of Nigerian public servants by providing short and long-term training courses in Nigeria, with an initial target to train over 22, 000 public servants.

” Therefore, it is evident that there are more training opportunities ahead.”

He said five courses are currently running under the e-Government programme, which includes Executive and Professional courses for Director Generals, Managing Directors, Executive Secretaries among others.

Others, he listed, are e-Security training for ICT technical staff and Train-the -Trainer intensive training for future trainers on Capacity Building programs.

Mashi said that e-Government has been captured in the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan of the current administration which he noted, was to be implemented soon.

He also said that the recently launched 2017-2020 Federal Civil Service Strategy and Implementation Plan ( FCSSIP), initiated to reposition the service for a better performance, recognised the need to implement key e-Government projects.

While appreciating the organisers for a job-well-done, he urged the graduates to impact the knowledge they obtained on the various places of service.

Also speaking, the Charge’ d’ affaires of the Republic of Korea, Mr Song Yong-Min, said that the training programme marked yet, another “excellent cooperation” between the two countries.

He noted that the amicable relationship of both countries, which started in 1980, did not stop at trade, culture and development cooperation alone but has played a “pivotal role ” in bilateral relationship.

“The e-Government is a good example. It is one of the areas where Korea is proud of its achievements and also has international recognition.

” The ICT industry has reinvigorated the Korean economy during the 1990s and 2000 when traditional sectors were already saturated globally.

” The efficiency and benefits of this sector also trickled down to the government sector, making it more accountable and capable; most importantly, it created millions of jobs to the younger generation.

” Nigeria, is on the right track to move forward by utilizing ICT technologies and it’s abundant human resources. ”

Song said that the Korean government would continue to assist and extend it’s friendly services to the Nigerian government towards mapping out strategies to making it a fully developed country.

KOICA ‘s Project Coordinator, Mr MyeongSeok Song, who spoke to newsmen on the sideline of the event said that the whole idea of e-Government tends to make “a more clean” government.

He said: ” It is about making a more effective, more developed system of government; it makes you anti-corrupt and more transparent in your place of work. ”

Song said that the agency would make the trainings regular so that it could give the desired impact.

One of the participant, Mrs Judith Garbage, while appreciating the organisers of the programme described her experience as an opportunity to ” go deeper and broaden ones horizon” on what e-Government implied.

She promised to make meaningful impact with the knowledge acquired.

NAN reports that participants, who were drawn from various Ministries, Departments and Agencies ( MDAs) across the country included the Managing Director of NAN, Mr Bayo Onanuga.

NAN also reports that KOICA was established in 1991 by the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade as a governmental organisation for Official Development Assistance (ODA).

The agency tends to enhance the effectiveness of South Korea’s grant aid programme for developing countries by implementing the government’s grant aid and technical cooperation programmes.