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Lagos Organises Training On System Upgrade For Exco Members

Feb 1, 2010 - The Lagos State Government on Monday organized a training programme for members of the State Executive Council to acquaint them with details of the upgrade by the State Government of its computer module from older version of Oracle to 12i.

Briefing newsmen on the details of the training which had the Governor, Mr Babatunde Fashola (SAN), his Deputy, Princess Sarah Adebisi Sosan and members of the Council in attendance, Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr Opeyemi Bamidele with his Science and Technology counterpart, Dr Obafemi Hamzat said the State is only trying to refresh the memory of members on how they can improve their computer application knowledge.

Said he: “We have migrated from Oracle to 12i. What this means is that a lot of things change. There are various modules that we operate such as for human resources and payroll. When all these things change, there are various enhancements”

Dr Hamzat added that the members of the Cabinet would also be trained on using the intranet to process information that would be available to those within the secretariat and also retrieving such information.

Responding to a question on whether the training must have been informed by infiltration of the State Computer system, Dr Hamzat said: “it is developmental, we have a very robust system. It is not about an infiltration of the system. It is about development. Like i said Microsoft just released Windows7, while we are still using Windows XP and Vista. By the time we migrate, we must come and train people”.

He explained that if for instance the Head of Service of the State issues a circular, it would be practically impossible for everybody to get to read it, but with intranet, a lot of people can have access to materials like circulars, executive orders by simply logging in.

On the assertion by a reporter that the Lagos State website is not regularly updated, Dr Hamzat said it depends on what information an individual desires, adding that a judgement has to be made on what to put in the public domain and what not.

He said public relation officers in individual ministries have been trained on how to go online with information about activities, depending on what directive is given by a Permanent Secretary about the appropriateness of such.

Also speaking, Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr Opeyemi Bamidele said the programme is not a computer appreciation programme but one designed to acquaint the members with constant upgrading in the computer system as well as new policies that have evolved.

He said the training would also be extended to members of the press corps in the Governor’s Office just as the Governor promised some few days back.