….Successfully championing e-government transition project in Nigeria
In commemorating Nigeria’s 62nd anniversary, an appraisal of the gains and contributions of the Digital sector to the country’s economy vis a vis Galaxy Backbone Limited aggressive push to fast tracking a burgeoning Digital Economy laced with immense potential to employ 3 million youths and implementation of e-government transition under the leadership of Prof Mohammed Abubakar.
It is no news that the country is currently grappling with high youth unemployment, economic downturns, poverty amongst other challenges, however Nigeria’s digital ecosystem has stood out as a serving grace.
With 383 Nigerian tech start ups raising over $2 billion in the last seven years and has so far contributed an estimated revenue of 18.44%, a staggering figure to go by – which would have been unrealistic but for the deliberate initiative of Galaxy Backbone Limited through it Managing Director, Professor Abubakar’s clear cut vision in partnership with stakeholders in the sector.
Since its inception in 2006, it has conspicuously spearheaded a system that affords government agencies to be fully digitized, a feat which seemed impossible in a country outside the Western hemisphere.
Chiefly of note is the achievement of GBB is the remarkable strides it recorded during the ravaging period of Covid – 19 pandemic that made the world stand still but there was no hiatus in government activities with the weekly Federal Executive Council meetings going smoothly without hitches.
With the effects of globalisation which has hugely facilitated digital trade with three trillion dollars potential, the need for protection of data has become even more imperative and GBB has left no stone unturned and not risking its platforms to the quick sand of data theft. With its latest data centre in Kano and another in Lagos, the security of data processed in Nigeria will be secured.
GBB Tier IV Datacentre storage has a capacity of about 2.2 petabytes. This translates to huge amounts of data that can be securely stored.
GBB’s responsibility to the agencies of the Federal Government consists of providing shared services from its ICT Infrastructure that will enhance and promote the government’s digital services in a smart, secure and sustainable manner. The huge investments that have gone into this infrastructure are for the benefit of public and private establishments. The experience of GBB in building, deploying and providing infrastructure as a service, is a testimony to its ability to manage and continue in this line of business.
Also, with little reduce cost, GBB have been able to render seamless fibre optic services to both government and non-government offices in Abuja, Kano, Kaduna, Akwanga, Lafia, Makurdi, Ugbokolo, Enugu, Akwa, Onisha, Portharcourt, Asaba, Benin, Ore, Ijebu- Ode, Lagos and with many more cities to come on board.
In addition, GBB boasts of over 1, 500km of Fiber Network in Abuja, the nation’s capital in line with building a truly smart capital city.
In a bid to engendering greater capacity building and higher skill development amongst public servants the federal government partnered with GBB and Public Service Institute of Nigeria (PSIN) in training over 5000 workers on digitisation and Information Technology to improve service delivery within the system, which is in line with its vision of paperless and fully digitised Nigerian public service by the year 2030.
Due to his vision to human capacity, GBB’s MD speaking on the importance of ‘People’ in the development of the fourth Industrial revolution, particularly stated that “We are playing a huge role in building the human capacity for an effective digital economy”.
No doubt, GBB has continued to strive amid challenges as a result of the visionary leadership of Prof Abubakar and management of the company.
As the world celebrate customer service week, it is pertinent to state that GBB has been consistent in rendering unfettered digital infrastructure services to its customers across Nigeria.