FG Approves Virtual Engagements for MDAs, parastatals and government-owned companies

The Federal Government at its Executive Council meeting has approved the policy on virtual engagements for the public service. The approval was made at its meeting on October 14, 2020. A statement signed by the Dr Folashade Yemi-Esan stated that the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a sudden migration of official meetings from the conventional physical meeting format to virtual platforms.

“Much as these changes were welcome, provision was not made for such meetings in the public service rules. “This policy on virtual engagements for the public service was therefore developed to legalize as well as provide the framework and standards within which Ministries, Departments, Agencies (MDAs), Parastatals and Government-owned companies can use virtual engagements as an administrative procedure in the Public Service”. The policy would institutionalize the use of virtual platforms for effective and efficient service delivery and encourage remote collaboration among stakeholders, including the private/public sector, individuals and international organizations.

Aside from this, the statement said the policy would also effectively adopt and deploy digital technology for virtual engagements in order to improve service delivery in the public sector and enhance learning and manpower development across the various Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) in order to create a smart workforce among others. Therefore, the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof Isa Pantami has urged all MDAs, parastatals and government-owned companies to familiarize themselves with the provisions of the Policy and ensure full compliance.  To ensure the inter-operability of technologies adopted for inter-governmental meetings, government institutions at the State and local government levels are encouraged to adopt the policy.

“The implementation of the policy will improve service delivery in the country and will support in the implementation of the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy for a Digital Nigeria and will be supported by subsidiary legislation from our regulatory parastatals supervised by the Ministry”, she said.