The Governor of Edo State, Godwin Obaseki, celebrating ‘World Development Information Day’ has said there is the need to improve Information and Communication Technology utilization in governance for effective and efficient service delivery.
Governor Obaseki stated that Information and Communication Technology are gifts, in light of the huge impact they have on social and economic transactions among people and Nations.
He noted that barriers to communication had been overcome with the emergence of Information Communication Technology (ICTs).
“Today, all forms of communication are conducted at unprecedented speed with user-friendly application solutions and mobile gadgets, making communication a great deal of fun”.
The Governor pointed out that there are some countries that still maintain old and retrogressive information and communication laws and are hesitant in using ICTs.
“Same cannot be said of governance in most parts of the world. Internet penetration is still low in many countries and several nations are still wary of its full deployment, despite the gains recorded in the developed parts of the world”.
He said with the celebration of ‘World Development Information Day’, key players in the ICT sector should consider how ICT could be used to foster World peace.
“We need ICT deployment in the health sector, revenue collection and management, payroll management, school administration, election, management of water and other natural resources as well as in agricultural sector and manpower development amongst others”.
October 24, is being celebrated as ‘World Development Information Day’ since 1972. The United Nations declared World Development Information Day to draw attention to development problems and the need for international cooperation to solve them.
While problems and impediments to development remain, decentralized international cooperation and exchange have been eradicating poverty at unprecedented levels.
However, decentralized market cooperation has promoted development. This is shown by the most recent update of the Economic Freedom of the World Annual Report (EFW), released last month.
For decades the United Nations, World Bank, and other Governmental and International Agencies have tried with little success to engineer development from the top down through aid programs.
Some economists have criticized these efforts, maintaining that these programs often impede development by creating dependency, distorting market incentives, and entrenching corrupt dictators.
