South Korea Commits N2.5 Billion to Nigeria’s E-Governance
The minister of communications, Adebayo Shittu,
has said the Korean government, through the Korea
International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), would
spend N2.5bn ($8.56 million) on the training of civil
servants for e-governance in the country.
The minister said 22,625 public servants would
benefit from the continuous capacity training
administered by selected professors from South
Korea on areas of institutional training programmes,
advanced group training programmes, curriculum
development for Nigeria-initiated courses, and
scholarship for Nigerian instructors.
Shittu, who spoke at KOICA’s second in-country
training project in Abuja, said “more than any other
country, the Korean government has supported
Nigeria’s drive for digitisation.”
The ministry, he said, “sees the overall purpose and
rationale of the Nigeria e-governance project as the
imperative to strengthen transparency and
accountability in government and, therewith, upscale
efficiency and excellence in public service and public
service administration.”
He told the participants that since the establishment
of the communication ministry in 2012, an expert
platform was created for a holistic approach to e-
government from the infrastructure, skills, standards
and patriotic duty viewpoints.
The Republic of Korea ambassador to Nigeria, Noh
Kyu-duk, said the e-governance training undertaken
by KOICA aimed to improve the efficiency and
transparency of the public administration services in
Nigeria’s Vision 20: 2020.
He said a master plan for Nigeria’s attainment of e-
governance was handed over to the ministry, with
the hope that it “will open a new chapter in Nigeria’s
e-government journey, resulting to clear, transparent
and efficient government.”
KOICA country director, Jung Sang Hoon, said the
agency had trained 105 public servants from 47
ministries, departments and agencies during the first
in-country training in August, with seven civil
servants currently undergoing masters’ degrees on
e-governance in Korea’s Kookmin University.
