The Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, says it has commenced the
digitisation of its documents as part of its efforts to render faster
and better service to the people of the Niger Delta region.
Speaking after reviewing the on-going capturing and archiving at the
NDDC headquarters in Port Harcourt, the Director, Information Technology
and Management Information System, Mr. Kine Osain, said that the
digitisation of legacy documents was necessary to ensure their safety
and continuity.
He said: “The world is moving towards a paperless society and NDDC will
not be left behind. We should, in fact, be among those blazing the trail
in digitisation. This will guard against unexpected mishaps that can
occur to compromise the commission’s documents. With digitisation, we
will have soft copies that will provide adequate backup.
Osain remarked that the digitisation would help the NDDC in preparing
for the forensic audit ordered by President Muhammadu Buhari, as it
would give the necessary integrity to official documents and make them
readily acceptable in courts.
He said that with the numerous benefits of digitisation, all the
Directorates and Departments in NDDC would key into it for the overall
interest of the people of the Niger Delta region.
Osain noted: “We have started with a pilot scheme that has fully
captured the legal directorate. Eventually, all directorates and
departments will be covered and our consultants, Xerox, will in addition
to setting up the system, provide hands-on training for staff. When we
are done, the various directorates and departments will own their
documents.”
According to him, “the beauty of going paperless is that it makes for a
smart organization.
Throwing more light on the digitisation project, the system analyst for
Xerox, Mr. Kinsley Maduako, affirmed that it would ensure the security
of documents in the event of fire outbreak, unforeseen hazards or
natural disaster.
He added: “It will guarantee the safety of documents and the project
will run on Docushare software which will protect the documents from
invasion by malwares, viruses and intruders or hackers.”
He listed the benefits of the project, which he said included less IT
dependence because files would be uploaded directly to the server from
the user departments; less paper use, which will reduce operational
costs and improved productivity in terms of automated work flow process.
Maduako assured that Xerox would provide continuous technical support
for the efficient operation of the Docushare software for the project.
He explained: “The project involves the deployment of enterprise content
management and physical archiving set up. We are now in the process of
digitising the legacy documents, which involves capturing the hard copy
documents and converting them into electronic format.”