The Federal Government Scorecard for ranking website of federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) is an important index metric the National e-Government Masterplan has employed for determining the Nigeria e-Government Status, Mr. Dasuki Ibrahim Arabi, has said.
Arabi, Director General, Bureau of Public Service Reforms, BPSR, stated this at a ‘Capacity Building on Web Development and Hosting Management’, according to a statement signed by Aliyu Umar Aliyu, Principal Information Officer, BPSR.
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The training, organised by BPSR in Collaboration with Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NIRA), was held at the Main Auditorium of Federal Ministry of Finance, in Abuja.
Arabi, said their Bureau has made tremendous stride towards improving the standard of websites of Nigerian Government through the instrumentality of the Scorecard, with majority of the MDAs attaining global level in the quality of goods and services rendered to the public.
He added that the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic have pressed the fast-forward button on the global shift to e-government.
“By extension, the pandemic has pushed the e-government transition forward at great speed, shifted many workers to a work-from-home and made us understand who the essential workers are.
“Institutional websites, which provides the digital space to keep government business up and running in the face of the pandemic must be kept at optimal standard to ease intention and readiness to adapt the new normal as well as to drive investors’ and citizens’ confidence in terms of ease of doing business, Open Data and Freedom of Information (FOI) Act.
“In placing all Federal MDAs on the same level playing field, the training programme was required to equip all relevant desk officers managing government websites to be fully accustomed with and appropriately apply the criteria of the Scorecard,” the BPSR Director General said.
Mr. Arabi, while speaking further, explained that there are fourteen strategic thematic areas by which MDAs’ websites must show compliance and are adjudged by the Jury constituted to coordinate the evaluation process.
According to him, the thematic areas include gov.ng/ng domain string and local website hosting, Look and Feel, Content, Relevance to MDAs mandate and government policy, Structure, Device Compatibility, Security, Load Time, Usability (ease of navigation), Availability/Uptime, Functionality, Interactivity, Accessibility and Capacity Building.
He said: “Consistent application of these criteria to government websites will foster the aspiration of government for MDAs to make information available to the citizens and involve them in governance process.”
