Bauchi ministry partners American Space to spur public enlightenment
The Bauchi State Ministry of Information and Communications, says it will partner the American Space, to enhance public enlightenment and awareness creation on government’s policies and programmes at the grassroots.
The Commissioner for Information and Communications, Usman Danturaki, said this on Thursday in Bauchi, while presenting the scorecard of the Bala Mohammed’s administration in the last one year.
American Space is an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) development centre being supported by the United Agency for International Development (USAID).
The centre provides IT skills to individuals as well as capacity building and technical support to organisations and government’s agencies.
Danturaki said officials of the ministry had visited the centre to strengthen relations, especially on staff training and development.
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He said that such working relationship was imperative to build the capacity of its personnel to enable them to discharge their duties effectively.
“I paid a courtesy visit to the American Space in trying to explore areas of partnership because they have opportunities.
“We are collaborating with them in terms of training because when you look at the capacity of our staff now, it has certainly mellowed down.
“So, we feel that the aspect of training should be given the desired consideration and that is why we want to engage them and see how they can come in and assist us.
“In no distant time, we would be having meetings with them to explore opportunities that are hidden and bring them to our staff and the people of the state,” he said.
The commissioner urged media outfits to support the ministry in propagating government’s policies and programmes for sustainable social and economic development in the state.
Also speaking, Dr Suleiman Adamu-Madara, the Permanent Secretary in the ministry, said the ministry was also collaborating with the USAID, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and other development organisations to enhance its operations.
He said the ministry would extend its outreach to the North-East Development Commission (NEDC) towards building the capacity of its personnel.
Adamu-Madara lauded USAID’s State2State project for conducting capacity building training for its personnel.
“The ministry has been comatosed before the Bala Mohammed’s administration. The staff don’t have the capacity, and it is being regarded as a punishment ground for commissioners.
“The present commissioner has put in place a mechanism to look for partners that can support us in capacity building, technical support and so on.
“No matter how serious you are, If there are no capable hands, you will not succeed and that is why we are putting more emphasis on capacity building of staff,” he said.
