IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

The spread of the Ebola virus across the continent of Africa was a grave concern for a significant portion of time, but Nigeria was one country where the threat lead to fewer deaths and cases of the medical condition. Even during the worst outbreaks of Ebola, Nigeria suffered 21 cases and eight deaths due to the disease. The Brookings Institution reports that mobile EHR platforms allowed for better patient care and prevention when battling the Ebola virus.

The first step in which mobile health records were used to improve patient care is by training healthcare workers. In particular, it was important to teach medical staff about the Ebola virus and modify some preconceived notions, such as how the virus spreads.

The reality is that it will take a few years to get things working back because of the disequilibrium occasioned by the displacement of economic means of empowerment across all strata of the world societies and economy.

For Nigeria to reverse this ugly trend, and position itself to achieve Vision 20:20:20 and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the establishment of good healthcare delivery system is non-negotiable.

No doubt, a number of factors have hampered the rapid growth of the country’s healthcare system, range from inadequate facilities/infrastructure, shortage of personnel, Information system, inadequate training and high illiteracy rate among the people, power (electricity) and bandwidth. However, in some parts of the world, telemedicine has been used to overcome these challenges.

Mobile communication devices such as mobile phones and tablets have become an inseparable part of our daily life. In addition to the main intended task, communication, these devises can effectively be used to improve health of communities and to reduce the burden of major health issues such as maternal and child health.

Using mobile communication in health care is called mHealth, the most recent health approach preceding teleHealth and eHealth. mHealth (also written as m-health) is a term used for the practice of medicine and public health supported by mobile devices. The term is most commonly used in reference to using mobile communication devices, such as mobile phones, tablet computers and PDAs, for health services and information. mHealth applications include the use of mobile devices in collecting community and clinical health data, delivery of healthcare information to practitioners, researchers, and patients, real-time monitoring of patient vital signs, and direct provision of care.

MyCityApp Nigeria, in collaboration with MTN Nigeria and the Federal Ministry of Art, Culture and the Creative Economy has launched a new digital city platform, MyCityApp, aimed at boosting tourism, expanding access to government services and connecting businesses more directly with residents.

The application, unveiled in Abuja on Thursday, is designed as a smart urban companion. It integrates city services, event listings, payment systems, transport information, hospitality offerings, and small-business visibility into a single digital interface.

With emerging electronic health (eHealth) aimed at integrating clinical care management and providing web-based health information and patient care including remote monitoring and healthcare, eHealth solutions have emulated e-commerce and e-government strategies in using internet-based networked technologies to provide healthcare services.

The fake agents seen in most places like Berger, Oshodi, 2nd Rainbow in Festac, Obalende and Lekki Phase 1 all in Lagos parade themselves as agents recruited to ease the registration exercise embarked upon by the agency under the office of the presidency. Our correspondents sighted the agents with NIMC banner below the bridge at Oshodi beside a new generation bank.

The Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr Boss Mustapha, on Monday said the National Identity Card Management Commission (NIMC) has registered 37 million Nigerians.

The SGF spoke in Abuja at the maiden National Identity Day with the theme: Assured Digital Identity for All.

The NITPPF is the premier event where IT public sector administrators, professionals, business leaders, high level public officials and opinion leaders from all parts of Nigeria come together to share and build a vision of a connected knowledge base with access for all.

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and Google Global Services Nigeria have forged an alliance toward the actualisation of national targets for ubiquitous broadband access in furtherance of Nigeria’s digital transformation policy.

The two organisations made the commitment when a delegation from Google Global Services Nigeria paid a courtesy visit to the commission’s head office in Abuja recently to deliberate on viable collaborative interventions to propel digital transformation across the country and Africa.

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has said its current push to deepen Internet penetration would help the country achieve seamless e-governance. With 122.9 million active Internet subscriptions as at August, the commission said the government is now poised to take its services to online, bearing in mind that the citizens are also online.

Electronic governance or e-governance is the application of information and communication technology (ICT) for delivering government services, exchange of information, communication transactions, integration of various stand-alone systems and services between government- to-citizen (G2C), government-to-business (G2B) government-to-government (G2G), government- to-employees (G2E) as well as back-office processes and interactions within the entire government framework. The Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta, who stated this at an e-government forum held in Lagos, said Internet connection is at the heart of e-governance in any country.

Efforts to deepen digital growth in Nigeria will not yield positive result until the rural areas in the country are digitally connected, President of Nigeria Computer Society, Prof. Sola Aderounmu has said. This came with the realisation that the digital gap between the urban and rural communities in the country is getting wider, as investments in digital infrastructure are being concentrated in cities.

While pointing at e-government, e-health and e-education as the next frontiers for Nigeria in the digital journey, Aderounmu said the rural communities would cut off from these developments if there were no conscious effort to deploy infrastructure in remote areas.

Adewunmi, who stated this at his inaugural address recently, thanked the 17th National Executive Council led by the immediate past president, Sir Demola Aladekomo, for the work done within the space of two years.

The Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) has launched a call for proposals from the country’s academics with the aim of developing solutions in areas including smart cities as well as identity management and location tracking systems using the national identification number (NIN).

One of the areas of the research is the development of sensors which can be used for smart city applications such as traffic management systems, smart parking, smart grid, smart homes, smart institutions, smart public services, public safety and emergency response and smart network management.

With a national target of reaching 70% broadband usage by 2025, Nigeria has made great strides, with broadband usage increasing to 44.5% in July 2022.

According to Naveed Kashif, Head of the Southern Africa Market at Nokia, optical solutions that have the scale to allow for significant growth will enable the country to meet its aggressive connectivity targets.

According to computer professionals, who gathered in Enugu under the aegis of Nigeria Computer Society (NCS) for the 25th edition of the yearly conference with the theme:"Building a Knowledge Based Economy in Nigeria: The Role of Information Technology", both corporate and individuals should device new ways of protecting data, since the country is fast moving to a knowledge-based economy.

Contrary to reports in some online media that the national identity card would replace voters register in 2019, the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has clarified that the report was misconstrued and out of context.

According to a statement issued by the Head of Corporate Communications Unit of NIMC, Mr. Loveday Chika Ogbonna, the report emanated from a visit to a royal father in Delta State where the commission's Delta State Coordinator explained the possibility of harmonising all identity related data on one card, an issue which was wrongly reported.

Q: AS an ICT expert, how relevant is ICT to mainstream education in Nigeria?

This is really a pertinent question you often get from teaching professionals who worry that the provision of computers and other types of technology to schools is being confused with proper education. Basically, ICT is very relevant in that it supports and enhances, but does not replace traditional methods of teaching. E-learning, which is broadly speaking the delivery of education via IT systems, is becoming increasingly fundamental to the way educators interact with students all over the world. A good example is the Glow system in Scotland which links all the schools in the country over the intranet. During severe weather, a few years ago in the winter, when school closure lasted a week, teachers were still able to communicate with pupils via the intranet to keep school work going on.