Galaxy Backbone, Nigerian Firm Bags UN Top Award

Galaxy Backbone's "1-GOV.net" initiative has been awarded first place in Africa of the United Nations Public Service Awards

The company won the award in the "Promoting Whole-of-Government Approaches in the Information Age” category.

1-Gov.net is a common ICT platform built and operated by Galaxy on behalf of all the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of the Federal Government for the efficient and effective delivery of public sector services.

The United Nations Public Service Award is the most prestigious international recognition of excellence in public service.

It rewards the creative achievements and contributions of public service institutions that lead to a more effective and responsive public administration in countries worldwide.

According to the letter from the United Nations' Department of Economic and Social Affairs, "Your institution's outstanding achievement has demonstrated excellence in serving the public interest and I am confident it has made a significant contribution to the improvement of public administration in your country. Indeed, it will serve as an inspiration and encouragement for others working for public service".

Commenting on the UN award, Gerald Ilukwe, managing director/chief executive officer, Galaxy Backbone said that, "This is a recognition of the fact that the painstaking consolidation and expansion of government-wide ICT infrastructure has begun to yield its first fruits - enabling the automation of the Federal Executive Council Memoranda process and the creation of a single hub for citizens to access government services".

Galaxy Backbone's 1-GOV.net initiative came up for recognition because it represents a creative and exemplary solution that transformed the chaotic information technology landscape in the Federal Government and its MDAs into a single, coordinated platform for e-government programmes in the space of 5 years".

1-GOV.net has also been recognized because of the role it now plays in enabling other electronic government services for internal government operations such as the automation of the memo handling process for Federal Executive Council meetings; government personnel payroll management (IPPIS) thus resulting in the gradual elimination of the ghost workers in the Federal civil service; and an IP telephony system which allows for communication within and across government MDAs.

1-GOV.net also supports the delivery of public services such as the provision of bridging assistance for the transportation of petroleum products to maintain uniform prices across the country with over 1,000 trucks are processed daily in real time by Petroleum Equalisation Fund; the real time implementation of new biometric drivers licensing scheme nationwide targeting over 20 million drivers by 30th September 2013; and the processing of over 5 million international passengers in 2012 by the Nigerian Immigrations Service.

This will be the first time any Nigerian initiative or institution is winning the UN Public Service Award in any category.