By Victor Nwegede, Abakaliki.
Following the upgrading and renewal of the Ebonyi State official website (ebonyistate.gov.ng) by the government of Governor Francis Nwifuru, the state has accessed over 4 million USD grants from the World Bank through the site.
The State Commissioner for Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Uzor Tochukwu who stated this during the weekend, said Ebonyi would soon access another 18 million USD via the website.
Uzor explained that the website contains numerous eligibility criteria that qualify the state to attract grants from World Bank/NGF assisted programs, SABER, SAF-TAS and NG-CARES.
"The upgrading and renewal of the state website by the Ministry of ICT averted the risks of losing these grants and their accompanied benefits.
"The State government as a result of the retrieval, upgrade and renewal has accessed four (4) million USD from the World Bank and another 18 million USD is still to be accessed," the Commissioner said.
He noted that Ebonyi State can boast of a functional and robust website, visible to all its development partners across the world and further disclosed that the Ministry of ICT has embarked on the creation of sub-domains for all the Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs in the state.
This, in his words, would enable each MDA to upload its activities on the State's official website which can be viewed from any part of the world.
"Creation of sub-domains makes it easier for users to navigate and understand the structure of the website and offer website security, in case one sub-domain gets compromised, it will not affect the main domain or other sub-domains," he explained.
The ICT Commissioner noted that his ministry has successfully installed optic fibre in strategic locations in the state and paid for a six-month internet subscription to the service provider MTN.
This according to him, was in line with the vision of the state government in creating a smart city in Abakaliki, the state capital.
He said the pilot locations include State Government House, Centenary City, Old Government House, Permanent Site of Ebonyi State University (EBSU), EBSU CAS Campus and Staff Development Centre Kpirikpiri, awaiting the approval of the state governor to commence the distribution to end users.
"This location are pilot centre in the state and they will provide citizens with access to free internet service once launched," Uzor hinted.
He noted that the already installed optic fibre can also be beneficial to the state in the areas of security services, defence, medical sciences, media, and provision of technical support in government functions, among others.
He added: "The Ministry of ICT has facilitated the procurement of an additional Congress server and video encoder for the state Executive Chamber to enable the facility Managers to respond to any downtime that may arise.
"The Ministry of ICT is collaborating with the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovations and Digital Economy to ensure the training of thousands of Ebonyi Youths through the Three Million Technical Talent (3MTT) initiative.
"We have deployed our ICT Centers across the three zones of the state to serve as physical training centres for all the participants. These centres will ensure that participants have a conducive environment and the right equipment to get the prerequisite training to be self-reliant in any ICT field of their choice.
"The Ministry of ICT has concluded plans to train 65 young boys and girls, 5 participants per LGA in self-sustaining ICT programs such as Data Analysis, introduction to cyber security, Front End Developers, Graphic Design and Video Editing, Phone Repairs and Hardware Maintenance.
"These ICT programs are in high demand as the trainees will not find it difficult to get a job. The training will last three months and a certificate will be issued as proof of training. The ministry has procured Hi-Tech Laptops and IT soft wares as startup kits for the 65 trainees."
