The Republic of Korea has called on Nigeria to fulfill her commitments in time, and support the set objectives of the US$13 million Digital Governance Programme.

Speaking during the recently conducted two-week pre-kick-off survey for the project titled Project for Building Foundations Towards Digital Governance in Nigeria (2021~2026), the KOICA Nigeria Country Director, Mr. Sungil Son said engagements with these government stakeholders emphasized on the need to have all commitments from the Nigerian-government side are fulfilled in a timely manner and also called for their continued support in the attainment of set objectives for the project.

The Republic of Korea through its grant aid agency, Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) Office in Nigeria in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy (FMCDE) recently conducted a 2-week pre-kick-off survey for the project titled Project for Building Foundations Towards Digital Governance in Nigeria (2021~2026).

The project is a fully funded grant aid project worth 13 million US Dollars between the Government of the Republic of Korea through KOICA and the Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria through FMCDE, with established project agreement signed between both parties in August 2021.

The project is expected to enhance Nigeria’s eGovernment implementation system through the update of the current Nigeria’s eGovernment Master Plan (NeGMP), upgrade of Nigeria’s Enterprise Architecture and development of a 10-year eGovernment Implementation Plan.

Other objectives of the project includes improvement in competencies for eGovernment service delivery through capacity building programs designed for policy makers and technical officers at both federal and state levels of government, enhancement of the quality of government digital services through the activation of the Government Service Portal www.services.gov.ng and create increased access for NIN enrolment through the establishment of additional NIN enrolment units.

A statement by KOICA on Wednesday said during the survey, an initial 3-member Project Management Consultant (PMC) team led by the Project Manager, Prof. Hung-Kook Park from Sangmyung University and KOICA Nigeria Country Director, Mr. Sungil Son had detailed technical and high-level engagements with representatives of key project stakeholders namely; Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy (FMCDE), National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Galaxy Backbone (GBB), National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), United Nations Children’s Education Fund (UNICEF), and National Population Commission (NPC).

A major highlight of the survey activity was the hosting of the wrap-up meeting with project stakeholders at the eGovernment Training Centre (eGTC) in Abuja. The wrap-up meeting provided the opportunity for the PMC to deliver to the representative of project stakeholders, the outcome of the survey and next steps for project implementation.

An official project kick-off ceremony signifying the commencement of project implementation activities is scheduled for May 2022.