Governor, Alex Otti has flagged off the Abia State dedicated internet access/wide area and managed network project to support digital governance and efficient delivery of services.
This is even as he has said that knowledge of certain levels of information technology would now be required for promotions and exposure to other opportunities in the state civil service.
Launching the project in Umuahia on Friday, Otti said that the scheme, which was in the first phase, will involve the acquisition and distribution of thousands of high performance digital tools and devices across Ministries, Departments and Agencies of in the state government and laying of fibre optic cables within the spaces of state-owned public institutions.
He listed the direct and medium term goals to include streamlining of the bureaucratic structure of the civil service, faster turnaround time, effective document archiving and tracking, among others.
The governor said that attention would be given to the training and retraining of the personnel, noting that employees would be given the support to scale their IT systems knowledge as the era of operational inefficiency is gone.
βGoing forward, certain levels of efficiency with the use of relevant technology shall now be required as a necessary condition for exposure to new opportunities and promotions in the civil service.
βYou either upskill and grow or become uncompetitive and stagnant. This is not to threaten anyone, this is just to call your attention to the need for you to open yourselves up to the new technology,β Otti said.
In his speech, the State Head of Service, Mr. Benson Ojeikere said that the project when completed, would further result to efficiency in service delivery within the Abia civil service.
