The Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, CCIE, emphasized that the automation of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC) will significantly enhance the fight against corruption in the country. Inuwa conveyed this commitment during a Courtesy Visit from members of the Commission, headed by Chairman Dr. Musa Adamu Aliyu, SAN.
Inuwa affirmed the Agency’s willingness to collaborate with ICPC to facilitate the digitization of its services and enhance the monitoring of corrupt practices in public institutions. He highlighted that automation is an ongoing journey rather than a one-time process.
The Director General noted stated that, “We have over two hundred and ninety-three processes to automate but we are selecting them one after the other to achieve the goal of the Agency”.
“We do this for other Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) also, we have other initiatives in place to help them achieve digital transformation”.
“NITDA organises a lot of trainings and has a technical Working Group which started about three years ago, and saddled with the task of training representatives from different MDAs who are later asked to nominate people that will become champions to promote digital transformation in their respective organisations”.
“We train them on e-Government and digital transformation in general, so that they can start the advocacy within their MDAs”, according to the DG.
“Moreso, we help some MDAs through the journey, like two years ago, Shippers Council came to us, we helped them with trainings, they documented their processes and have started automation. Also, we are currently working with the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI)”, the DG said.
Inuwa underscored the reality that while technology serves as a tool, achieving the desired outcomes is contingent on the preparedness of the intended users to effectively leverage it and embrace its myriad possibilities. Without this readiness, the anticipated results would remain elusive.
“If your processes are not optimized and re-engineered, it will be difficult to automate your services”, the Director-General emphasized.
The Director-General of NITDA, who took the opportunity to enlighten his guests about NITDA’s digitization journey using slide shows, elaborated on the diverse approaches and mechanisms of automation employed within the Agency, known as the “NITDA Digital Transformation Playbook.”
Reflecting on the challenges he faced during the initial days of his tenure as NITDA DG, Inuwa shared the demanding nature of manually handling numerous memos and emails while simultaneously attending to guests. He recounted how this manual process adversely impacted the Agency’s productivity, leading to the imperative of establishing a high-velocity organization aimed at fostering high performance and yielding the desired outcomes.
“To achieve that, we had to reimagine ourselves, take a closer look at our mandate to draw up salient points, then, we came up with a new vision of where we want to be as well as core values that will be binding on all in the Agency”.
“We had to develop a 2P2CT Framework (i.e People, Process, Content, Culture and Technology) and deliberately disrupt the way we do things, so that we can come up with a new way of doing them.
Inuwa emphasized that corruption typically occurs through human contact and added that technology has the potential to eliminate such occurrences.
“I believe if we can digitize government’s services, it will really address the corruption challenges we have in the country”, Inuwa stated.
The Director-General unequivocally stated that the Agency is fully supportive of the Commission’s digitization efforts and is open to collaboration in any other essential areas.
“Digital Transformation is a journey, it is not a one off initiative or project that you will execute and you are done, no, it is a journey which needs continuous improvement and we are willing to go on this journey with you,” Inuwa concluded.
Earlier, the Chairman of ICPC, Dr. Musa Adamu Aliyu, SAN, provided a brief overview to the DG and his team, expressing that the prospect of combating corrupt practices and related offenses without leveraging technology is minimal.
“When you look at the mandate of ICPC, the first responsibility is to ensure that it helps in preventing corruption, then investigate issues of corruption, prosecute, where there is a clear case of corruption, established through investigation. So, with a lot of changes observed over the years, particularly, since the creation of the Commission in 2000, we believe that aligning or collaborating with NITDA to digitize our processes will boost our services and speed up deliverables,” Aliyu said.
The Chairman of ICPC further emphasized the significance of technology in enhancing the overall performance of the Commission. He expressed optimism that the digitization process would enhance the organization’s transparency, accountability, and effectiveness. This, in turn, is expected to instill confidence in the Nigerian people regarding the Commission’s operations.
