Buhari bars govt officials from using private emails

The Evangelist
February 3, 2023

President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday, directed government officials to refrain from using private emails for official purposes.

He also ordered all Federal Public institutions to migrate their websites to the relevant government domains.

“I hereby direct that all government officials should refrain from using private emails for official purposes,” Buhari said when he launched the National Policy on Nigeria Government Second-Level Domains at the State House, Abuja.

The President’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, disclosed this in a statement he signed on Thursday titled ‘At the launch of two policies on the digital economy, President Buhari says diversification has been most successful in the sector.’

Buhari who lauded the new policy, ordered all government officials to refrain from using private emails for official purposes, adding that all Federal Public institutions must migrate their websites to the relevant government domains.

While launching the National Data Policy, the President also welcomed the recent deployment of Starlink services by SpaceX in Nigeria, saying the country now has 100 per cent broadband penetration.

He said, “We are glad Starlink services are already deployed in Nigeria. This has made Nigeria the first and only African country to have this link.

“With the deployment of Starlink services in Nigeria, we have 100 percent broadband penetration in Nigeria.”

According to him, Nigeria’s digital economy has been the most booming sector in the diversification of the economy, saving the Federal Government over N45.7bn in IT projects clearance.

He said, “On October 17 and 18, 2022, I chaired the ministerial retreat and we had independence assessors from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and KPMG.

The President noted that Nigeria’s strides toward a thriving digital economy began on October 17, 2019, when he redesigned the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy and restructured its mandate.

“We are proud of the great strides of our digital economy sector and its impact on the different sectors of our economy.

“I commend the Honourable Minister for being committed to implementing the digital economy mandate.

“As part of our commitment towards ensuring the sustainability of our gains in the digital economy sector, we have taken steps to institutionalise the process by developing relevant policies and strategies,” Buhari further stated.

He reveald that the regime has enacted 21 new national policies and strategies since 2019, and that the two new policies launched Thursday will accelerate the development of the nation’s digital economy sector.

He explained, “In the last three and a half years, we have intensified the development of policies, design of programmes and implementation of projects in the digital economy sector and the impact has been very impressive.

“For example, we have succeeded in diversifying our economy to a large extent and this is obvious when we consider the contribution of the ICT sector to our Gross Domestic Product in the second quarter of 2022 which stood at 18.44 per cent, compared to the contribution of the oil sector to the GDP which was 6.33 per cent in the same period.”

Earlier, Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof. Isa Pantami, said that the two policies being launched were outcomes of compliance with the President’s directive to come up with a National Policy earlier approved by the Federal Executive Council.

According to Pantami, the policies are meant to consolidate the gains achieved so far in the digital ecosystem.