The Niger State Geographic Information System Agency (NGISA) has organised a two-week training programme on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for its staff to improve their capacity for better service delivery.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports in Minna on Friday that NGISA incorporates graphic and attributes text and symbolic information on ground and underground features, such as topography, geology, hydrology and land ownership, into its database.
The General Manager of the agency, Alhaji Abdul Husaini, said that the training would enable the agency improve service delivery to its clients and secure information and data of the public.
Husaini said that the training would enable staff of the agency to acquire the latest knowledge in ICT for better performance.
According to him, the agency was undertaking an upgrade to meet current challenges and to ensure transparency in processing land documents and issuance of Certificate of Occupancy (C of O) in the state.
“Due to the ongoing bonanza on obtaining C of O from N250,000 to N15,000 for urban land owners and N150,000 to N5,000 for rural land owners, there is need for the agency to upgrade its system to serve customers better.
“More people are coming to the agency to obtain C of O and since the agency is seen as the hope of data management, there is need to improve the capacity of staff,” Husaini said.
He said that the training would increase public confidence in the agency and make information more available to the general public.
Husaini explained that the upgrade would improve access to land processing information online as well as make the agency more digital.
Alhaji Aliyu Abdullahi, state Commissioner for Lands and Housing, said that the training would improve performance of staff of the agency as the agency was solely dependent on ICT to manage information.
Abdullahi said that the training would refresh the memory of the staff as well as expose them to sophisticated technology.
He advised the agency to extend the training programme to its rural offices to avoid the issue of officers sending information to the ministry manually.
Dr Tobi Abiodun, consultant, Spatial Matrix, said that the training would improve professionalism among staff of the agency for better service delivery.
Abiodun said that 95 per cent of poor public perception was out of the fact that government was not able to protect public documents.
He said that the training would be on document management and how to manage increasing demand from the public.
“This will better position the agency to protect the documents of members of the public. It is a form of motivation on the part of the staff to improve productivity.
“It is said that 36 per cent of working life is spent searching for documents. The training and upgrading will improve service delivery towards improving internally generated revenue of the state,” Abiodun said. (NAN)