E-Government infrastructure to be managed by local engineers – training and capacity building ongoing at NDMA

The National Data Management Authority is conducting a series of training and capacity building exercises in keeping with its long-term goal of having the Government’s Information Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure managed exclusively by an experienced pool of local engineers.

Director of the NDMA, Floyd Levi said recently that a two-month training exercise was conducted in collaboration with Chinese company Huawei and involved all the network engineers.

Levi said that the exercise was intended to bring these engineers, most of whom are University graduates but lack the requisite knowledge in the operations of the system being used, “up to speed, fully conversant and type-rated on Huawei’s equipment.”

Presently, Huawei engineers are supporting the Authority in this capacity.

Twenty-four engineers from the NDMA and sister agencies such as the Ministries of Legal Affairs and Agriculture, among others received various type-training.

“For them to have an idea of what we [NDMA] are doing here and as the relationship matures, whether they choose to stay at their ministries or join us, they have an insight as to what we are doing,” Levi noted.

The NDMA, as part of its mandate, holds responsibility for determining the type of training needed by personnel in the Public Sector required to manage and operate data processing systems and to prepare suitable training programs.

By: Stacy Carmichael.