The Honourable Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Ali Ibrahim (Pantami) has pointed out that digital innovations and entrepreneurship are key to developing the digital economy in Nigeria.
He stated this during the Ministerial retreat organized by the Ministry for directorate cadre staff. The theme of the retreat is “Performance Improvement and Service Delivery in the Era of Digital Economy” held at the Digital Economy complex, Mbora, Abuja from November 16-17, 2020.
He said digital innovation and entrepreneurship are two prerequisites for developing indigenous digital economy and charged the staff to challenge citizens to come up with innovative ideas that would proffer solutions to societal problems.
According to him, “today we are a consuming nation and our economy will continue to suffer as long as we fail to integrate production in every sector of the economy. As a nation, we must excel in manufacturing and production, which is the way forward. Our day to day activities are to promote digital entrepreneurship and our target is to transform Nigeria into a leading digital economy”
Dr. Pantami said that the Ministry involved stakeholders in the ICT sector, political parties, governors, traditional institutions, and religious leaders in developing digital policies for the nation adding that the policies are not about the present administration but long-time policies for the nation which would outlive the administration.
“We don’t think about the current administration in developing policies but our focus is about the country. We inherited documents from the previous administration which we implemented; we will also leave for the incoming administration because government is a continuum”.
The Minister stated that leadership is the ability of an individual or a group of individuals to influence and guide followers or members of an organization to achieve specific goals.
He urged the management to work as a team and have analytical thinking so that they could break down complex information or comprehensive data into fundamental parts.
Earlier the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, Mr. Musa Istifanus pointed out that the staff need to think outside the box to find solutions to Nigeria’s problems adding that the society would blame the Ministry if we fail to achieve digital economy objectives.
In her presentation titled “Strategy for Improvement on Implementation of Effective Service Delivery, the National Coordinator/Chief Executive Officer, SERVICOM, Mrs. Nnenna Akajemeli commended the management of the Ministry for the retreat to enhance digital economy strategy for the improvement on implementation of effective service delivery.
In her words, service delivery has been given priority by governments in both developed and developing nations. The service delivery gap that exists has to be bridged through the collaboration for effective service delivery.
The Chairman of ICPC, Professor Bolaji Owasanoye represented by Mr. Olayinka A. Aiyegbayo in his paper titled “Ethics and Integrity Compliance in the Workplace” pointed out that accountability and Transparency must be adapt and incorporated into the organization’s culture to enhance good governance, efficiency, effectiveness, and productivity in the workplace.
Phil Oshodin (Mrs)
Head (INF/Pres/PR)
November 17, 2020
