Anambra ICT agency intends to digitise legislative policies

The Anambra Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Agency, says plans are underway to digitise the state legislative processes to make residents have digital access to the laws and other legislative instruments. Mr Chukwuemeka Agbata, Managing Director, Anambra ICT Agency, made the disclosure when he visited the Speaker of the State Assembly, Mr Somtochukwu Udeze, in his office on Monday. Agbata said that since Gov. Chukwuma Soludo’s administration kick started the ‘Everything Technology and Technology Everywhere’ vision, the ICT agency had taken initiatives to bring other arms of government on board. He said that the agency had identified areas of improvement in the online presence of the State House of Assembly. “We want to see how we can ensure that proceedings of the Assembly are digitised to enable constituents have a feel of the efforts of their representatives in the House. “Lagos State House of Assembly has a portal with pages for the legislators, their works, motions and Bills they have sponsored, all captured for easy access by the constituents. ” This is a positive model we can borrow as a forward-looking state. We will also get for our legislators a domain name and email addresses, to ease communication among themselves. “We want to work with the House to reproduce all the laws and bye-laws of the state in digital formats, so that in the event of any mishap, we will not be losing so much, as they must have been backed up in the cloud,” he said. Agbata sought the collaboration of the assembly to achieve the project. “Gov. Soludo has that vision of a liveable and prosperous smart city and as an agency, we are playing our part effectively but we need every support we can get, “Agbata said. Also speaking, Mr Jude Emesim, a Digital Investment Lead, said that the digitisation would allow constituents’ inputs in the legislative processes and bridge the gap between the elected members and their constituents. Responding, the speaker said the 8th Assembly under his watch is committed to doing things differently in line with the governor’s vision. Udeze lamented that everything done in the assembly is still in analogue form compared to other states. “Having the documentation of the state laws in digital format, will give the people access, reduce duplication of legislative efforts and ensure absence of conflict of motions and laws. “I want to assure you that the 8th Assembly will embrace technology to ease its processes and ensure it is effective in fulfilling its obligations as an arm of government,” Udeze said. (NAN)