President Muhammadu Buhari has conferred National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) with the prestigious “National Productivity Order of Merit (NPOM) Award”.

Buhari who chaired the Award Ceremony held on Thursday at the Banquet Hall, State House, Asokoro, Abuja disclosed that the award is in recognition of the NITDA high productivity, hard work and excellent service.

According to the National Productivity Order of Merit Award Committee, NITDA’s recommendation and subsequent nomination came after a vigorous selection process, and the Agency recoreded impressive and commendable achievements in facilitating the development of Nigeria into a sustainable digital economy.

“NITDA adheres strictly to information security and safety. The Agency’s proactive action in creating a robust incident Management Procedure, through which any irregular or adverse event that occurs and affects the normal functioning of a system is adequately dealt with, is a worthy accomplishment”, the statement read.

The Award which falls into the “2020 Organizational Category” highlights NITDA as the only government agency among other privately owned Organizations to be so recognized.

“Another commendable attribute of the agency is its commitment to improve and sustain productivity through training and retraining of staff. As a matter of policy, every staff of NITDA is expected to have at least forty hours of training within three years. This has resulted in improved competencies, knowledge and skills of the Staff”, the management of NPOM said.

The Director General NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa while receiving the award pledged the Agency’s continuous determination towards the expansion of the digital space in order to impact more lives of many Nigerians through the development of increased critical mass of IT proficient and global competitive manpower.

The National Productivity Order of Merit Award which was part of activities to celebrate the 19th National Productivity Day is an award of honour and dignity instituted by Federal Government to recognize hard work and excellence.

As the only (Government’s Agency) recipient of the National Award this year,  and as an Apex IT Agency charged with the responsibility of creating an enabling environment where Nigerians will develop, adopt, and derive value from digital technologies, NITDA sees this rare honour as not just  ‘a pat on the back’ but a challenge to intensify efforts towards its digital inclusion pursuits.

Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST) has partnered National Population Commission(NPC) on effective digital Postcode system to boost the Nation’s revenue generation, tackle insecurity.

Newssphere learnt on Thursday during the signing of Memorandum of Understanding(MoU) between NIPOST and the NPC.

In his remarks, the Postmaster Generation of the Federation/CEO of NIPOST, Dr Ismail Adewusi said the digitalized postcode system would speed up economic activities and improve the ease of doing Business in Nigeria.

According to him, the digitalization of the postcode system would facilitate better sorting, delivery of mail, better response to emergencies by security agencies, thereby reducing crimes like banditry, kidnapping and Internet scams, effective healthcare delivery system, effective revenue and tax collections and Utility bills distribution.

He further stated that the technology would enable entrepreneurs or private business owners to have effective interaction with their clients, facilitates easy locating, identifying places, seamless delivery of goods ordered through the Internet (e-commerce) and aid Customers’ address verification process.

“We are not unaware of the difficulties which service providers in Nigeria face, due to lack of efficient addressing system in the country.

“The relentless drive to use new technologies and latest digital solutions, to manage operations more efficiently, at less cost, increased productivity, and better quality of service, is a major challenge for managers, especially in a large and complex networked industry that delivers a wide range of products and services.

“With the cooperation and support of the National Population Commission, we embarked on the process of enhancing the Postcode, leveraging technology. We drew up entities in a manner that ensures every part of the country is effectively captured, using a systematic framework of alpha-numeric characters from the State, Local Government Areas, Postcode Districts, Postcode Areas and Postcode Units”, he stated.

On his part, the Chairman, National Population Commission, Mr Nasir Kwarra expressed readiness to support the new system by sharing its data to enable the designing of a digitalized postcode.

Kwarra disclosed that the partnership will be instrumental to the forthcoming Population and Housing Census.

He also hinted that the NPC has developed a functional and robust GIS unit within its cartography development.

“The National Population Commission is delighted to share our data set as primary data for the creation of the postcode area, postcode districts and other entities and to design a digitalized postcode framework to facilitate the sorting and transmission of malls delivery and improve National addressing standard.

“In preparation for the next Population and Housing Census, the Commission has been able to develop a functional and robust GIS Unit within its Cartography Department which is manned by highly competent set of GIS personnel who have acquired valuable experience and demonstrated hard work, resilience, dedication, and team work in the discharge of their duties. The Commission has also completely digitalized the Enumeration Area Demarcation, all Cartographic process and subsequently the forth coming census”, he said.

The digital postcode system is expected to help achieve the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals, including poverty reduction, disease control and provision of basic services such as water and electricity.