Joy Agwunobi
The Aig-Imoukhuede Foundation, in partnership with the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (OHCSF) and Microsoft, has announced a new initiative to enhance the digital skills of Nigerian civil servants. The initiative, which will be carried out by the Wootlab Foundation, a non-profit organisation dedicated to bridging the digital divide, aims to upskill civil servants and equip them with the skills and knowledge necessary to navigate the modern digital economy.
Microsoft’s support for the initiative is in line with its wider goal of supporting digital transformation in Nigeria. The company believes that by providing government employees with the right skills, they will be able to play a key role in making public services more efficient and accessible to citizens. The initiative will focus on upskilling civil servants in areas such as data analytics, cloud computing, and cybersecurity. It is hoped that this will help to create a more efficient and effective civil service that can effectively leverage technology to improve the lives of citizens.
In 2023, the OHCSF, in collaboration with the Aig-Imoukhuede Foundation, implemented an Enterprise Content Management Solution (ECMS) to automate all its work processes. This initiative is part of the federal government’s broader e-governance drive, which aims to improve efficiency, transparency, and accountability in government.
It recognised that the success of the ECMS initiative depends on the digital readiness of civil servants.
As a follow up to this, the foundation has partnered with Microsoft to develop a digital upskilling program for civil servants to equip them towards digital transformation in Nigeria.
To officially kick off the digital upskilling program, a signing ceremony was held at the Federal Secretariat in Abuja. The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed by the Aig-Imoukhuede Foundation and the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation.
In addition to the digital upskilling program, the Aig-Imoukhuede Foundation is supporting several other initiatives to improve the civil service. These include the development of an e-learning platform, the introduction of a performance management system, and a culture change initiative.
In addition to the initiatives, the Aig-Imoukhuede Foundation recently brokered a public-private partnership that provided 8-week internships to civil servants across various private sector organisations. The internships were part of the 2023 Leadership Enhancement and Development Programme (LEAD-P), a training programme designed to build the capacity of Nigeria’s future public sector leaders.
