Omobola Johnson, Nigeria’s Minister for Communications Technology, has revealed the federal government of Nigeria will launch the first of its new websites in March.
Johnson, speaking at Social Media Week Lagos this morning, said the portal would make it easier for Nigerians to connect with government.
HumanIPO reported earlier this month several Nigerian government departments had come in for criticism because their websites were not maintained or updated sufficiently.
According to the minister, because of the enormous challenges involved, the ultimate objective of setting up the portal is to interconnect all government websites by 2014.
Twenty of the new websites will go live next month.
She noted a major challenge for the project is the inconsistencies in the designs and formats of the websites, but the ministry has established a standard and template that it is encouraging ministries to switch to.
The template is based on her own ministry’s site.
With the project, Johnson said government will be eliminating the challenge of authenticity of domain names since only verified websites will be listed.
Johnson also called on Nigerians to help the government confirm that the contents of the websites are up-to-date.
“Supervising the contents of these websites is an enormous task, so we need the help of all Nigerians,” she said.
