By Amaka Abayomi

The variables on which the performances of a city or an urban centre are examined depend on not only the city’s endowment such as good roads, availability of water and good transport system, but on the availability of social welfare and infrastructure. Based on this, the Cross River State Government has collaborated with Interswitch to develop a statewide identity management and e-payment backbone, which positions Calabar as the first smart city in Nigeria.

The infrastructure is being deployed via Smartgov.CRSG Limited, a joint venture company between Interswitch and Cross River State Government, with a mandate to oversee the design, deployment, management and operations of a statewide identity management and e-payment backbone infrastructure for the state.

The project aims to make Cross River state the first Smart State in Nigeria, which will in turn make the state capital, Calabar, the first Smart City in Nigeria. Generally, a city is defined as ‘Smart’ when investments in human and social capital, traditional and modern communication infrastructure fuel sustainable economic development.

The project is expected to deliver to the citizens and residents of the state, the benefits of a Smart City, which are Smart Economy, Smart Mobility, Smart Living and Smart Government. The Smartgov project would enable the Cross River State Government provide its citizens and residents with adequate social welfare and infrastructure in order to improve the quality of life of the citizenry even at the lowest level.

Smartgov will enable the state government automated processes such as revenue collections, salary payments of civil servants and contractors thereby making government activities transparent. The project is expected to implement automated fare collection systems for public buses, electronic tolling and an integrated electronic parking system.

Biometric-based identity SmartCity cards would also be issued to citizens and residents under the Smartgov project and will contain cardholders’ information while providing cardholders with access to healthcare, pension, transportation, educational bursaries, social amenities and benefits.

Cross River State Government desires to improve accountability in governance, simplify access to social services, and create a robust social safety net for citizen of the state, which are the major drivers of the Smartgov project. During the project, signing ceremony with Interswitch at the Government House in Calabar, Governor Liyel Imoke, described the project as a reflection of a new way of doing business in the state.

He stated that, “the Cross River State Government will continue to partner with private sector to improve service delivery, and help make a difference in the lives of the citizen”. Governor Imoke added that the achievement of the project would be a success story for public-private partnership initiative”.

Smartgov will allow the state government leverage on its investments in technology, automate its ministries, department and agencies, identify all citizens and residents, track and monitor usage of social services, enhance internally generated revenue and automated is bursements and payments by government. The project will increase revenue, eliminate wastage, simplify governance, encourage transparency and increase access to government services.

Speaking on the initiative, Special Adviser to the Governor on information communication and technology (ICT), Mr. Odo Effiong explained that, the SmartGov initiative has the potential to increase manifold qualitative and quantitative access to various government socio-economic services and that the programme has been in gestation for over a year.