UN Award is Icing on 1 Gov.net-Ilukwe

Management of Galaxy Backbone, an ICT services provider under the federal ministry of communications has said that the recent United Nations award as best in the-Whole-of-Government Approach in the Information Age with its 1-GOV.net initiative is a validation of the efforts of the company, and Nigeria, at the efficient deployment of information technology in delivering services to Nigerians.

Shedding some light on the efforts that earned it the prestigious United Nations award, the company said that it had over the years committed itself to selling the initiative to government agencies which initially resisted the product, and was not working for the sake of awards.

Mr. Gerald Ilukwe, managing director of the company disclosed that his team was quietly doing its job in Abuja and stumbled on the award category and decided to give it a shot.

According to the Galaxy Backbone boss, “the award came from the most unexpected quarter, it was a very good feeling standing before world leaders to collect this prestigious award, we are humbled by it, though we never work for awards, my team just does its job and here we are being declared the best.”

He however urged other promoters of Nigerian initiatives to explore windows offered by the United Nations Organisation and similar organisations, explaining that Nigerian music for example is preferred abroad now to even western music.

Mr. Ban  Ki-moon, secretary general of the United Nations,  represented by Wu Hongbo, under-secretary-general for Economic and Social Affairs, said, “The winners demonstrated  the basic ingredients for excellence: commitment and accountability, hard work and innovation, talent and technological know-how.”

Winners of the awards are chosen in the following areas: prevention of corruption; improving service delivery; promoting innovative mechanisms for citizen participation in policy-making; advancing knowledge management in government; and promoting gender responsive service delivery.

Galaxy Backbone Ltd is an Information and Communications Technology Services provider under the Federal Ministry of Communications.

The establishment of Galaxy Backbone by the Federal Government was driven by the need for Government to pursue a cohesive and harmonized approach to information and communications technology acquisition, deployment and utilization in the public sector.

The company has the mandate to build and operate a Nationwide Broadband network that provides IP-based Connectivity services to all Federal Government MDAs and institutions.

Galaxy is focused on providing ICT infrastructure, applications and services to all Federal Government MDAs and institutions which includes but not limited to managing government data centers and databases, directory services, national information repositories, IP-telephony and other solutions/services delivered on the shared platform.