FG creates national single window portal, call Gov centre

Mrs Omobola Johnson, CommTech Minister for Nigeria

 The Federal government has created a national single window portal that will ensure that all government information is domiciled in one portal, according to the Minister of Communication Technology, Mrs Omobola Johnson.

This is coming as government call centre will be launched in April this year.

She made this disclosure at the just ended Social Media Week in Lagos, tagged ‘’Showcase: Technology in Governance,’’ stressing that the primary objective of deploying a National Portal, an initiative of the Ministry of Communication Technology in collaboration with the Ministry of Information is to create a single point of entry for Nigerians to access government information and services online.

The National Portal which will be launched in March, would showcase all the Ministries Departments and Agencies MDAs of the Federal Government of Nigeria on a single Window portal that would enable Nigerians at the click of a button to view and engage any desired agency of government.

Also, she disclosed that a government Call Center with vanity number ‘’0700 CALL GOV’’ is set for launch in April. 

She explained that the call center will facilitate enquiries, complaints cum problem resolution where possible. In addition to helping in building a knowledge management database and help support Servicom desks.

The portal,  Mrs Johnson she further said,  was created with the latest technology  with more intuitive domain names (finance instead of fmf, environment instead of Fme) that makes it easier for citizens to view what they want from a single window.

The portal currently has twenty processes and by 2015, two hundred and fifty processes of government will be online. Twenty simple citizen facing processes of the Ministry of Communication Technology, Education, Health, Agriculture and Trade and Investment have already been automated on the portal for the benefit of Nigerians.

The Portal will be multi-featured and have collaborative channels that deliver core content management capabilities in a single, extensible platform and will provide a consistent approach to managing traditional and social content. It will also have live twitter feeds and links to state government websites.

eGovernance according to the World bank is the use by governnment agencies of informaiton technologies (WANs, internet, mobile computing) that have the ability to transform the relationship with citizens, businesses and other arms of government. 

These technologies can serve a variety of different ends; better delivery of government services to citizens, improved interaction with business and industry; citizen empowerment through access to information or more efficient government management. 

The resulting benefits can be less corruption, increased transparency, greater convenience, revenue growth and/or cost reduction.  

The Portal will bring government closer to the people by improving access of citizens to accurate, timely and relevant government information; as well bring government closer to the people by making available government information and government services for the benefit of Nigerians.

The Ministry of Communication Technology has already designed new standardized and secure web templates and guidelines that conform to global web and security standards for MDAs to adopt in the re-design of their websites before the launch. Thus all MDAs of Government will be mandated to migrate before December 2014 to the new security and design standards.

The National Portal has several key benefits which includes improved access to government information for citizens and improved efficiency in the delivery of government services to the citizenry.

Reiterating the role of the new Ministry of Communication Technology, Mrs Johnson stressed that the creation of the Ministry resulted in a better focus on the ICT industry and egovernance.  She added that though egovernance was already happening, but in silos. Government had publish and inform websites of 420 MDAs (not standard, not updated regularly).  

Nigerians she disclosed, could get Customs HS Codes, NIPOST post codes, file for passport issuance, register for exams and check exam results online via JAMB.

"But the National portal with a single window will have all that and more," she said.

She disclosed that processes like the Evaluation and Accreditation of Certificates, School Inspection Report, Registration of a Trademark, Registration of an Industrial Design, Registration of a Patent, Application for Product Certification, Application for SONCAP Certificate, Web-based Drug Authentication, Application for full registration of drugs, Farmers registration, Mega suppliers / distributors of fertilizer registration, Registration of seed importing and exporting companies and Application for non-commercial spectrum license are near completion for automation on the National Portal.

 

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