At least 80 per cent of all public services will be provided through digital platforms by 2018, the Federal Government has said.

Minister of Communications, Mr Adebayo Shittu, disclosed this yesterday at the ongoing 3rd Indo-African ICT Expo 2017 in Lagos.

According to Shittu, government has reached an advanced stage toward the establishment of a befitting ICT Park and Exhibition centre in Abuja,

“This is to develop Nigeria’s ICT sector towards achieving a Smart Digital Nigeria,” he added.

The minister also said government had expanded the 1-gov.net platform which consolidates existing government ICT infrastructure into a common platform.

He stated that 1-gov.net enables MDAs to exchange data in a seamless manner while allowing each other to remain independent and maintain its privacy and the security of its operatives.

“Efforts are on to expand the number of data centres and government is about to commission its tier three certified data centre, the highest certification for any data centre, in Abuja”, Shittu said.

Using the 1-gov.net platform, the minister revealed that government had been able to save 30 per cent of what it would have spent on a unit per unit cost.

He said currently, 90 per cent of all MDAs within Abuja had been linked with fibre backbone and 3,500 locations of different MDAs had been touched across the country.

Over 270 MDAs websites and applications are being hosted on the network, he stated.

According to the minister, government is supporting the development and sustenance of ICT applications that are driving cost effectiveness and transparency in government service delivery.

He stated that applications supporting Treasury Single Accounts (TSA), IPPIS, Budget Portal and BVN verifications among others are already resulting in huge savings.

He further said the Ministry of Communications had expanded the Open Government Data Portal which “is a part of the Federal Government Open Data Initiative. Over 60 civil servants have been trained across MDAs on the use of the portal.”

Daily Trust