CITAD: Trained Staff Of Rural Access And Agricultural Marketing Project (RAAMP) On ICT Knowledge

By Ali Sabo.

The Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD), Jigawa office had from the 5th to 9th November, 2018 trained 13 staff of Rural Access and Agricultural Marketing Project (RAAMP) of Kano state Ministry of Rural and Community Development under the State Project Implementation Unit (SPIU). The training which took place at CITAD office, Dutse aimed at building the capacity of the participants and both sensitize the staff on the benefits of the use of ICT for administration and to expose them to know how they can plan to deploy, use and manage ICT effectively in their fields.

RAAMP is a project that aimed to provide a year –round accessibility in the rural areas through the construction/rehabilitation of rural roads and water crossing hydraulic structures in order to ensure easy access to farms, markets, educational and health facilities etc. It would further ensure better agricultural processing and marketing through the provision of Agro – logistics hubs aimed at reducing post harvest losses.

The project will be supported by the World Bank and French Development Agency with contribution from Federal and State Governments. Under this arrangement 13 states are presently participating, Kano State inclusive.

The project developmental objectives is focused to improve rural access and agricultural marketing in selected participating states while strengthening the financial and institutional base for sustainable management of rural and state roads network.

The project would be executed over the period of five years.

In his welcome remarks, CITAD Executive Director, Engineer Y.Z Ya’u who was ably represented by the Project coordinator, CITAD, Malam Isyaku Garba appreciated the ministry for collaborating with CITAD in this gigantic project. He continue to mentioned that it is accepted globally that ICTs are major tools for development processes; where students can use them to enhance their learning activities, teachers can use them to aid their teaching, while administrators can also use them for day to day running and management of their institutions. The E.D added that considering the need to ICTs for administration and the volumes of documents and communications which administrators are handling, computer skills have become necessary for them, yet such staff and officers have no time to learn the computer in a conventional computer school considering their commitments.  He went further to mention that CITAD has developed a fast track module which requires minimum time on the part of the participants, which is well tested module given to a number of similar clients in Bauchi, Edo, Katsina, Jigawa and FCT. CITAD sees it as an opportunity to organize ICTs Capacity Building for administrators, it is thus imperative that officers in the MDAs, especially the administrate staff are conversant with the use of ICT infrastructure in their offices for the benefit of the staff, government and other partners.

While in his remarks, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Rural and Community Development, Kano state, Alhaji Kuliyo A. Zubair, mentioned that the important of ICT cannot be overemphasize as it cut across all human endeavors i.e. E-governance. He reminded the participants that the use of ICT is very important to the success of the project and most importantly it is part of the work plan of the project. He also stated that in the near future there will be no offices; people will only be interacting online, so the need to embrace ICT if you don’t want be left behind in the future even if not for the sake of the project. The P.S continue to state that even revenue are now been paid online, things are purchase online and vital documents can also be shared online, thus if you want remain relevant you must embrace ICT.  Alhaji Kuliyo also extended the Honorable Commissioner, Ministry of Rural and Community Development, Musa Ilyasu Kwankwaso appreciation to CITAD and prayed that the collaboration will be sustained.

In the first day of the training Malam Isyaku Garba took the participants Fundamentals of Computer while Sagir Ado Abubakar discussed MS Word. In the following day Sagir Abubakar continued with MS Word and Malam Ibrahim Nuhu taught the participants MS Excel. In the third day of the training the participants were been taught MS Excel and MS power Point by Malam Ibrahim Nuhu and Abdul’aziz Yunusa Ya’u respectively. In the fourth day of the training Engineer Kamal Umar continued with online tools while in the final day of the training Evaluation and certificate presentation were conducted by Maryam Haruna.

In his vote of thanks, Engineer Sunusi Saleh Suleiman, state program officer, RAAMP, appreciate CITAD for accepting to collaborate and conducted the training, he went further to state that they all came to the training with different perception of ICT and hoping to learn basic ICT knowledge in order to improve their work and daily activities which according to him has been achieved.