Fides Media Living the Faith
By Ikeugonna Eleke
The Anambra State Physical Planning Board (ANSPPB) has been named the winner of the Beacon of Information Communication Technology (BOICT) awards on e-Government Solutions Implementation category.
The board was named winner during the 12th edition of Beacon of Information and Communication Technology Lecture and Awards event held at Eko Hotels and Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos at the weekend.
The Chairman of the board, Barr Chukwunweike Maduekwe, who is also the Special Adviser to Governor Obiano on Digital Economy, who received the award on behalf of the board, told Fides in a telephone conversation that the board polled the highest number of votes in the e-Government Solutions Implementation category to emerge winner.
He said: ‘We won this because of internet solutions we adopted in Anambra State that crashed building approval processes and time for application from three months to one week or less.
‘The voting process was open to industry stakeholders and enthusiasts months before the awards and was largely transparent.
‘I commend Governor Obiano for all his policies and programmes aimed at improving access to broadband Internet service in the state which has huge positive impact on the people and economy.
‘Anambra became the first state in Nigeria to completely waive the Right-of-Way (RoW) charges for fiber optic cables and convened the first broadband stakeholder’s forum which was attended, albeit virtually, by the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Ali Pantami, Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El Rufai, Governor Willie Obiano, UK representative, Facebook Team and other ICT and Telecom stakeholders,’ he said.
Fides learnt that the event was attended by industry experts with several speakers headlining the event.
The theme of this year’s lecture was given as: “5G: Exploring New Frontiers for Superior Service Delivery”.
The Founder of the Nigeria Communications Week, and organisers of the award and lecture series, Mr Ken Nwogbo, said the theme was chosen because of the buzz around 5G network.