From left: DG NIMASA, Dr. Bashir Jamoh OFR, DG, Bureau of Public Service Reforms, Dasuki Arabi, and Permanent Secretary, General Services, Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Dr. Maurice Nnamdi Mbaeri, during the Nigeria GovTech Public Service Awards in Abuja at the weekend.

The Bureau of Public Service Reforms BPSR has conferred the best in Digital Transformation award among Federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs on the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency NIMASA. Other corporate recipients of the presidential recognition include the University of Benin Teaching Hospital UBTH and Edo State Government. Meanwhile, the Governor of Anambra State, Prof Chukwuma Soludo and the Director General of NIMASA, Dr Bashir Jamoh OFR, were among the individual recipients of the award, who were honoured with the Distinguished Trailblazers award for exemplary leadership.  

Jamoh, who led the NIMASA management team to the BPSR Nigeria GovTech Public Service Awards presentation ceremony in Abuja at the weekend, dedicated both awards to members of staff of NIMASA and the entire stakeholders in the maritime industry.

“This award from BPSR and by extension the presidency is a call to serve more. We didn’t set out to win any award. I am most delighted at the fact that others are watching every step we take at NIMASA. I dedicate this award to team NIMASA and the entire stakeholders in the maritime industry. We will not relent in our quest to completely digitalise the operations of the Agency with professionalism at the core of the reforms”, the DG said.

The Director General, BPSR, Dasuki Arabi, who also spoke at the event, stated that the awardees were chosen based on performance and their achievements. According to him “We assessed the Agencies based on their adoption of ICT in rendering services to citizens in line with the approved e-government master plan of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. President Bola Tinubu, has maintained that Information Technology (IT) is the way forward, so we don’t have any option than to adopt the use of IT in delivering service in our MDAs”.

“I wish to congratulate NIMASA and other agencies of government for these wonderful awards. I want to congratulate the leadership of the agency too for the wonderful work he is doing and I ask him to do more. To whom much is given, much is expected,” Arabi said.

Public Sector Reforms consist of deliberate changes to the structures and processes of public sector organisations with the objective of getting them to run efficiently.