National Digital Economy, E-Governance Bill: Legal Consultant Roles Out Benefits, Solicit Stakeholders Input

By Obansa Ibrahim, Lokoja

A Legal Consultant for the Proposed National Digital Economy and E-Governance Bill, Chukwudi Chimezie has described the move as a welcome development as it will go a long way in boosting Nigeria’s socio-economic activities, good governance and quick service delivery in both public and private sectors.

In his summary Presentation of the law, during the Kogi stakeholders’ engagement, held in Lokoja on Wednesday, the legal consultant, said that the essence of the workshop is to get citizens input on the bill as it will affect them.

He said that the stakeholders’ engagement which was organized by the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy in Collaboration With the Kogi State Ministry of Information and Communications, will also afford citizens the opportunity of getting feedbacks on the way forward to make the bill implementable.

According to the legal consultant, “The bill requires five years implementation stages and also targeted at providing a reliable digital framework for Nigeria’s database information”

Continuing on the benefits of the bill, Chukwudi Chimezie said that it will set Nigeria on the part of economic growth and bring a lot of goodies for the nation’s digital revolution as well as boosting good governance, accountability and transparency in the system.

“The bill will enhance public record keeping and information management as it will afford citizens the opportunity to access any data digitally world over

“Digital computer age will also provide room for protection of consumers as they will be highly armed with detailed information on what they are consuming or buying” the legal consultant noted.

In their contributions, Stakeholders called on both government and private organisations as well as the media to embark on massive sensitization and engagement of citizens on the gains of the bill down to the grassroots across the country.

Stakeholders also urged government at all levels, non-governmental organisations, civil society organisations and spirited individuals not to relent in organising short term training programmes on Information and Communications Technology and workshops on the essence of the bill and other benefits accruing from it.

Stakeholders further enumerated some of the challenges of the Digital Economy and E-Governance Bill to include, capital intensive as it requires a lot of money for its implementation, network problem resulting to non availability in some areas Failure of network as the case may be.

Another major challenge according to the stakeholders is poor computer literacy level in Nigeria and high level of illiteracy generally across the country.

Earlier in his welcome address, the Permanent Secretary in the Kogi State Ministry of Information and Communications, Mr. Ebenezer Adurodija, called on the people of the state to embrace digital age as it will go a long way in uplifting their living standard.

He told participants at the Stakeholders Workshop to make meaningful contributions to reflect the opinions of Kogi on Digital Economy and E-Governance Bill at the national assembly.