THE E-Payment Providers Association of Nigeria (EPPAN) has concluded plans to host Nigeria’s premier edition of the e-government summit with the theme, ‘e-Government: Key to sustainable development’.

   The summit, scheduled to take place in Abuja, will hold on July 7 and 8, 2015. It will address issues such as access, efficiency, transparency, cooperation and sustainable development in the area of e-government.

  The Committee of e-Banking Industry Heads, First Bank of Nigeria and SecureID Nigeria Limited, which are members of the E-PPAN Governing Board, will work with the E-PPAN’s secretariat as the planning committee for the event.

   In a statement made available to journalists, the Executive Secretary and Chief Executive Officer, E-PPAN, Mrs. Onajite Regha, said the objective of the summit was to create a platform for developing outstanding models and formulating winning strategies, “which will enhance government’s administrative productivity, efficiency and transparency.”

   This, she said, would be centred on improving efficiency in government service delivery, and moving away from a ‘silo approach’ to greater collaboration between the private and public sector for sustainable development and economic growth.

   “Other objective includes exploring how government can manage the process of innovation in the context of public finance and how technology can improve the process of governance itself,” she said.

   According to Regha, the 2015 e-government summit will provide an exciting opportunity for public sector to learn from and network with private sector experts, “as we identify common challenges and share useful solutions.”

   She said, “As part of our strategy, we will be collaborating with major government agencies and state governments.”

   She explained that the summit was born out of the desire to be a driver of a new generation of e-services in the public sector, providing a platform where decision makers and top government officials meet with the best and brightest of the e-payment industry on a single platform. “This has been successfully achieved in three consecutive conferences,” she added.

   She maintained that the e-government summit would proffer solutions to identified issues, which would propel new steps towards the changing needs and challenges of the public sector in terms of achieving excellence in service delivery, infrastructure and attaining both organisational and national transformation.

   “It will also provide an exciting platform for industry experts, key government representatives and professionals from various Ministries, Departments and Agencies at the three tiers of government to discuss the latest issues and trends related to e-government,” she added.