The Kaduna State Government and telecoms giant, Vodacom, on Monday announced an ICT for development initiative.

The goal of this partnership is to support mass service delivery in healthcare, education and agriculture through the deployment of tailored ICT solutions to promote greater efficiency in each sector.

The new partnership was unveiled in Kaduna on Monday at a joint press briefing by Nasir El-Rufai, Governor of Kaduna State, and Vuyani Jarana, chairman of Vodacom Business Nigeria.

Already, the first programme under the ICT for development initiative is being implemented in the public health system of Kaduna State.

Known as, ‘SMS for Life 2.0’, it is a mobile technology-based healthcare program in Kaduna State which aims to improve the delivery of healthcare for citizens who access public health services as well as increase the availability of chronic or essential medication by monitoring drug stock levels.

Vodacom is the technology partner for the initiative, which is a public-private partnership with Novartis and the Kaduna State Ministry of Health. Over 250 public health facilities are now using the platform.

Mr. El-Rufai welcomed the progressive evolution of the partnership with Vodacom.

“The Kaduna State Government is delighted to apply technology to advance governance and the delivery of public services. Working with Vodacom, we seek to further enhance service delivery, improve data collection and strengthen accountability,” he said.

The partnership will also deploy Vodacom technology for mobile school management in Kaduna State, with facilities for real-time visibility of all management activities at schools.

A school feeding programme module allows the state to monitor feeding programmes in schools to ensure that pupils on the programmes receive quality meals. The district office has access to real time reports on teacher and learner data through the application. The solution, which uses mobile phone and tablet technology, will be implemented in 4000 schools across the state.

Mr. Jarana praised the efforts of the El-Rufai government in Kaduna.

“I have just finished a very transformational session with the governor of Kaduna State, Malam Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai. We discussed how we can work with the Kaduna State to transform healthcare delivery, education management and agriculture using technology.

“We have already deployed healthcare solutions in 255 primary healthcare facilities, we will be implementing school management solution in 4000 schools in Kaduna.

“The leadership of the Kaduna state has clear objectives for the agriculture sector and understands the exponential effect of deploying ICT alongside other initiatives. Soon the rest of Africa will come to Kaduna to learn how a great vision is translated into reality, how strategy is turned into action to deliver mass social progress. We will walk side by side with the leadership of Kaduna.”