ICT skills gap in govt disheartening—Ndilowe
Chief Secretary to Malawi Government Hawa Ndilowe on Friday said lack of information, communication and technology (ICT) skills among key staff in government is disheartening.
Ndilowe said this in Lilongwe when opening an ICT needs assessment sensitisation meeting for heads of government ministries and departments.
“From the staff training needs analysis, it shows that in some absolutely important ICT tasks, as high as 50 percent of the ICT personnel in the public service do not have appropriate skills to undertake the ICT tasks.
“What is disheartening is that some of the ICT tasks are very fundamental. We cannot stay put and watch,” she said.
She also said Malawi ranks 150 among UN member countries on e-government, hence the need to realise the task in the shortest time possible.
“The Malawi Growth and Development Strategy II states that government will continue to implement information communication technology strategies that will facilitate e-services, increase public efficiency and grant citizens access to public services,” said Ndilowe.
She said ICT is also among the tools key to the country’s economic recovery, adding promotion of information and communication is part of efforts of reducing poverty through sustainable economic growth and infrastructure development.
“It is, therefore, orderly that the vision of the Department of E-Government is to have an innovative and efficient e-government by 2016. The department has developed a training plan whose implementation will contribute to the improvement of staff performance and therefore realisation of strategic outcomes outlined in the strategic plan,” said Ndilowe.
