Buhari forbids government employees from using personal emails

On Thursday, President Muhammadu Buhari issued an order prohibiting government employees from using personal emails for official business.

Additionally, he gave the directive to move all federal public institutions’ websites to the appropriate government domains.

When he unveiled the National Policy on Nigeria Government Second-Level Domains at the State House in Abuja, Buhari issued the following directive: “I thus instruct that all government officials should desist from utilising private emails for official activities.”

In a statement he signed on Thursday and headed “At the inauguration of two policies on the digital economy, President Buhari believes diversification has been most effective in the sector,” the president’s special advisor on media and publicity, Femi Adesina, revealed this.

Buhari, who praised the new rule, ordered all government employees to abstain from using personal email accounts for work-related communications. He also ordered all federal public institutions to move their websites to the appropriate government domains.

The president announced the national data policy while also praising SpaceX’s recent deployment of Starlink services in Nigeria, claiming that the nation now has a 100% internet penetration rate.

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“We are pleased that Starlink services are already available in Nigeria,” he remarked. Nigeria is now the first and only African nation to have this connection.

We now have 100 percent broadband penetration in Nigeria thanks to the introduction of Starlink services there.

He asserts that Nigeria’s digital economy has been the country’s fastest-growing industry in terms of economic diversification, saving the Federal Government approximately N45.7 billion in IT project clearance costs.

He declared, “I presided over the ministerial retreat on October 17 and 18, 2022, and we had independent assessors from the Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office and KPMG.

The President stated that on October 17, 2019, he revamped the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy and restructured its mandate, marking the beginning of Nigeria’s progress toward a thriving digital economy.

“We are proud of the significant advancements made by our digital economy sector and the effects it has had on the various facets of our economy.”

“I applaud the honourable minister for her dedication to carrying out the mandate for the digital economy.

In order to institutionalise the process, Buhari added, “As part of our commitment to ensure the durability of our accomplishments in the digital economy sector, we have taken steps to develop pertinent policies and strategies.”

He stated that the two new policies announced on Thursday will help the country’s digital economy grow faster.He also disclosed that the regime has implemented 21 new national policies and initiatives since 2019.

“We have accelerated the creation of policies, the design of programmes, and the implementation of projects in the digital economy sector over the last three and a half years, and the result has been really outstanding,” he said.

When we compare the contribution of the ICT industry to our GDP in the second quarter of 2022, which was 18.44 percent, to the oil sector’s GDP contribution of 6.33 percent in the same period, it is clear that we have been successful in diversifying our economy at a significant level.

According to prior comments from Prof. Isa Pantami, Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, the two policies being presented are the results of compliance with the President’s order to develop a national policy that had already been authorised by the Federal Executive Council.

The policies, in Pantami’s opinion, are intended to build on the advancements made in the digital environment thus far.