Story Source: Lagos State Govt.
The Lagos State Government on Thursday launched a
mobile app to facilitate interaction and provision of services between
government and the citizens from the comfort of their homes and offices without
necessarily paying a visit to government establishments where such services are
being provided.
The mobile app, otherwise known as Citizens Gate under the
Citizens Relations Management (CRM) initiative, is the first of its kind in
Nigeria, and would avail residents of the State the opportunity to make enquiry
and suggestions on government services and getting faster responses.
Addressing a joint press briefing at the Bagauda Kaltho Press
Centre in Alausa, the State’s Commissioner for Science and Technology, Mr.
Olufemi Odubiyi, said the launch of the web platform was another initiative of
the Governor Akinwunmi Ambode-led administration aimed at bringing government
closer to the people.
Odubiyi, who addressed the briefing alongside the Commissioner
for Information and Strategy, Mr. Steve Ayorinde and the Director General of
Lagos State Office of Transformation, Creativity and Innovation, Mr. Toba
Otusanya, described the Citizens Gate as an intuitive-based technology
innovation designed to manage relationship between the citizens and government.
He said: “The Citizens Gate is an integrated web and mobile-based
platform through which Lagos State’s citizens can lodge feedback to the State
Government on various services provided, receive quick responses on services as
well as interact with government officials via web and mobile phone.
“The platform is designed to promote communication and
connectivity between citizens and government while it will also enable citizens
to inform the government on problems and issues occurring in their areas,
communities and beyond.”
The Commissioner added that the platform would also afford
citizens the opportunity to enquire about government services while also
providing an avenue to make suggestions on government services for better
confidence and trust in the present administration led by Governor Ambode.
According to Odubiyi, the platform can be accessed via citizensgate.lagosstate.gov.ng and a downloadable mobile
app from Google play store and Apple store both on Android and iOS, while the
platform would enable government to acknowledge problems and issues which would
be investigated, worked on and resolved efficiently and timely.
He said apart from the fact that the development would improve
the State budget thus making planning a lot easier and preventing waste and
encouraging savings that will aid in provision of more services and
development, the platform would further help government to determine which
programme of the State is working and whether to replace or improve on any
programme for efficient and effective service delivery to the people.
In his remarks, Otusanya said the platform has been designed
initially to accommodate 22 MDAs of government and same will be scaled up to
cover all MDAs in the near future.
He said government officials have been trained to be in charge
of the platform in all the initial MDAs, while citizens with no access to
internet can call the Command Centre on 767 and a ticket will be issued
instantly on their behalf.
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