By Stephen Adeleye.
The Nigerian Army said on Tuesday it was embracing e-records keeping to boost service delivery because the old records keeping methods had become “obsolete and embarrassing”.
Maj. Gen Kuta-Adamu Isiyaku, Chief of Administration, Army Headquarters, who said this at a conference on army records in Lokoja, said that the army was embracing technology to digitise its personnel records to ease administrative actions.
The conference held at the Chari Maigumeri Barracks had the theme: “Data and Information Management in the 21st Century: A Panacea for Administration in the Nigerian Army”.
According to Isiyaku, the Nigerian Army has continued to be confronted with the challenges of traditional methods of record keeping and management that were obsolete and embarrassing.
“In this 21st Century, these methods are without doubt obsolete and needless to say cumbersome, ineffective and indeed embarrassing.
“The time has come to have a paradigm shift where the Nigeria Army will embrace technology and digitise its records and other administrative processes.
“It is for this reason that I commend the initiative to drive the transformation to Electronic Document Management System and Physical Storage Solution (e-Records), in Command Army Records (CAR),” Isiyaku said.
He stressed that the theme for the conference was very apt, saying that the department of administration would continue to support the CAR’s efforts and the commitment of the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), to ventures that would make the Army better.
He added that the ‘e-Records’ project had been approved and was awaiting the requisite funds to take off.
Isiyaku expressed confidence that the experienced and knowledgeable senior officers in data management present at the conference would come up with credible and workable ideas that the Nigerian Army could use.
The Commander, Command Army Records, Maj.- Gen. Elvis Njoku, in his remarks, said that the conference was an annual event that presented a platform to review activities of records offices in the past year.
Njoku added that the event was also an avenue to deliberate and take decisions that would chart the course of the command’s activities in the current and coming year.
“Only through focused and constant realistic review of all processes of our data and record management system can we become more proficient and well equipped to perform our jobs,” he said.
He commended the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai, for his immense support to the command, and the dynamic leadership and guidance he had provided.
“I wish to assure the COAS of our commitment to work harder to attain greater heights in our primary mandate of managing the records of NA personnel as well as the task of maintaining the security of Kogi State,” Njoku said.
NAN reports that the four-day conference had participants from the Department of Army Administration headquarters with CAR, and field record officers.
(NAN)
