Gbenro Adesina
The Oyo State Governor, Engr Seyi Makinde, has inaugurated 1,108 units of computer systems to kick start the first phase of e-governance in the state.
At the inauguration of the systems at the state Secretariat in Ibadan on Thursday, December 17 2020, the Governor said that the initiative would fast track the processes and activities of government, stating that the computer systems would be distributed to Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) across the state.
According to him, fibre-optic cables had already been laid around the secretariat to ensure internet access and linkage by the MDAs.
The Governor assured that e-governance would have taken a firm root in the state by the end of his tenure.
He said, “The era in which the government gets bogged down with physical files and papers should be a thing of the past in the state. It has been really challenging in dealing with physical files. They bring files in Ghana-must-Go bags for me to sign almost on a weekly basis. And we don’t think that in this day and age that is what we should be doing and that is why we are starting with the first phase of e-governance in Oyo state. It is not just the computers you have; you have the fibre-optic being laid. All the tools that you need in there, word processing and collaboration tools are there. So, this first phase is being flagged off now and we do hope that before the end of this administration’s tenure, e-governance should have taken roots in Oyo state.
“Even, if we are not using it to approve things that have to do with money, approvals in principle can be done electronically. And when you get to the point where you want to give approval for things that have to do with spending the state’s money, then they bring the physical files. That will definitely reduce our turnaround time and also the ease of conducting government business,” Makinde said.
