By EmekaAaginam

…inaugurates IDEA board
Minister of Communication Technology, Mrs Omobola Johnson has disclosed that the Federal government has created a national single window portal that will ensure that all government information is domiciled in one portal.

The Minister who disclosed this to newsmen  at the Social Media Week in Lagos entitled ‘’Showcase: Technology in Governance’’ stressed 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 next month, according to her will showcase all the Ministries Departments and Agencies MDAs of the Federal Government of Nigeria on a single Window portal that will enable Nigerians at the click of a button view and engage any desired Agency of Government.

She added that that a government Call Center  with vanity number ‘’0700 CALL GOV’’ is set for launch in April.

The portal,  Johnson 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.

Reiterating the role of the new Ministry of Communication Technology, 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 according to her could get Customs HS Codes, NIPOST post codes, transact websites by Immigration for passport issuance, register for exams and check exam results online (JAMB). But the National portal will have a single window will have all that and more.

In a related development, Mrs Johnson has inaugurated the Governing Board of the National ICT Incubation Programme tagged IDEA( ’Information Technology Developer Entrepreneurship Accelerator)

The programme has a mandate to support Nigerian ICT Entrepreneurs to create successful businesses that will have global impact. The programme will offer support to promising ICT entrepreneurs through ICT incubation centres established in a selected number of cities with the first two located in Tinapa and Cross Rivers state.

Members of the Governing council inaugurated include Mr Adedotun Suleiman of Arian Capital, Pius Okigbo Jr of Infosoft, Osayi Alile Oruene of Fate Foundation, John Obaro of Systems Spec, Teemu Kiijarvi of Nokia, Wiebe Boer of Tony Elumelu Foundation, Juliet Anammah of Accenture, Mohammed Balarabe of Fidelity Bank, Vincent Olatunji of NITDA and Aristotle Onumo also of NITDA