DocuData Custodian Services Limited, a prominent records and document management firm in Nigeria, has urged individuals, companies and the government to embrace records and document management system for proper planning and informed decisions.
DocuData was formed in 2008 by a group of historians, lawyers, accountants, library archival and information management experts who saw the need for the evolution of an era of perfection in the delivery of Records and Information Management in Nigeria and Africa.
Mrs. Timi Bamgbose, manager, Operations, DocuData Custodian Services Limited, told Nigeria CommunicationsWeek, that the industry if well harnessed could contribute enormously to the development of country.
Although she regretted that the industry in Nigeria remains untapped due general belief among majority of the people who tie information management to information technology alone.
“The industry in Nigeria”, Bamgbose said, “It not really been easy, because it is like a new concept. People are yet to understand, appreciate or adopt the idea of managing their documents and records. The truth is that they are aware of the importance of generating and keeping records, but the process remains elusive to many of them.
“All businesses generate document which at the end of the day becomes records and securely kept in archives, but how to manage those documents is what they are yet to know; companies pile up their documents as dumpsites. Personnel in such organisations are scared of going to those archives to retrieve records. And these are records that serve as evidences of business transactions, of which we know that a misplaced receipt can cause the organisation millions of naira.
“Although the industry is big in Nigeria, but lack of awareness remains a critical point. If not the Records and Information Management Awareness (RIMA) Foundation and the Lagos State Government that has built a separate Bureau for such function, even at Federal Government level the issue is still not garnering attention”.
She added that the industry can contribute greatly to the Nigeria’s GDP if properly harnessed and help several organisations overcome litigations matters.
She thus encouraged companies to embrace the processes of document management which starts with proper policy formulation. “The policy will define the documentation process and stipulates who has right to such documents and can even help in establishing the retention period, for an instance, where there is no general retention period in place.
“And it is important for people to know that scanning a document is not all about archiving or proper management of documents or records. There are laid down procedure which we in DocData Custodian Services pursue”.
According to her, the society cannot totally eliminate paper in the system, but it can be reduced. “The reasons are not farfetched, there are some transactions that require paper evidence; even regulatory bodies like the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) would require that you send papers or keep paper documents”, she said.
She added that DocuData Custodian Services partners have vast experience working with various organizations from Government Agencies, Financial Institutions, Oil & Gas sector, Religions Institutions, Legal Firms, Private Businesses, and Academic institutions with the following key cardinal services within the Information Management world of:
Some of the services offered by the Company include Document, Records & Information Management; Archives Management; Historical Collections Management; Library and Educational Resources Management; Document Conversion / Digitization; Supply and Installation of Equipments and Training and Consultancy.