THE Ondo State Governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, has urged professionals in the nation’s Information and Technology (IT) industry to embrace common vision to guide the development of Information and Communications Technology in the country.

The Governor, who was represented by his deputy, Alhaji Lasisi Adeboyo, in a keynote address at the Nigeria Computer Society (NCS) 12th International Conference 2015 held in Ondo state, said that achieving good governance, in a significant way, the citizens must be empowered in decision making-process through information sharing.

According to the governor, contemporary society demands that citizens’ right to information and access cannot be denied; as one of the ways to achieve this is through IT applications.

Mimiko said that theme for NCS Akure 2015, “Information Technology for Inclusive Development”, was apt, and that discussions from the gathering will help in harmonizing a common vision to guide the development of ICT in Nigeria.

He said, “It is exciting to have an array of Nigeria’s IT industry, professionals and the academia assembled with an objective of championing IT priorities and advancing technology to drive our nation’s economy; create new jobs and foster sustainable developments.

Driving IT for inclusive development starts with having IT for good governance. For good governance to exist in a significant way the citizens must be empowered in decision making-process, they must have a right to information and be to access it.

One of the ways to achieve this is through Information Technology applications.”    Mimiko added that “The choice of Ondo State for this historic event is commendable and it is coming on the heels of strategic designs and roll-out of Ondo State ICT initiatives to improve the quality of public service delivery by the State Government.

For instance, right from inception, our administration is resolute to evolve a reliable and comprehensive database of all residents of the State.

The underlining objective of this noble concept is to ensure the provision of socio-economic and welfare services with objective demographic data of the citizens. We all know that data have become the indispensable resource for sustainable planning.

In this context, the State is blazing the trail with ultilization of Ondo State Residency Card ‘KAADI IGBE AYO’- a unique, home-grown solution for further enhance the people oriented programmes and projects f our administration,” he said.

The governor added that the State Residence Card is primarily aimed at service delivery management and not for identification.    “The importance of data for development cannot be overstressed. The SMP-2004-2008 document identifies the main underlying factor for the nation’s backwardness as the lack of basic socio-economic data.”