Work continues at the centre as the Nigerian government sets up virtual solutions to enable civil servants to keep working from home and avoid gatherings that could aid the spread of COVID-19.  About 123 locations have been connected with telepresence facilities and extra capacity to support more public and private institutions, the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy (FMoCDE) has announced, this week in Abuja, in a statement issued by Spokesperson to the Minister of Communications & Digital Economy, Mrs. Uwa Suleiman.

According to the statement, the deployment was carried out by Galaxy Backbone (GBB) Limited, a parastatal under the ministry. Under the direction of Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami. The “highly secure government-wide telepresence and collaboration facilities have been deployed to ensure government functions continue while maintaining social distancing,” the statement affirmed.

Read the full statement below.

Galaxy Backbone deploys telepresence facilities at 123 locations and has additional capacity to support more public and private institutions

At this critical stage of efforts to limit the spread of the COVID -19 in the country, the Federal Government is applying measures to safeguard its personnel, by using telepresence facilities deployed by the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy (FMoCDE), through the Galaxy Backbone (GBB) Limited, a parastatal under the ministry.

The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami had earlier directed GBB to utilize its highly secure government-wide telepresence and collaboration facilities, to ensure government functions continue while maintaining social distancing.

They have complied by positioning their telepresence and collaboration facilities to ensure productivity, enhance security and reduce the cost of communication during this period.

Video conferencing terminals have been installed at over 120 federal government institutions, including the offices of:

1. The Vice President;
2. 26 Honorable Ministers
3. 17 Ministers of State;
4. Chief of Staff to the President;
5. Secretary to the Government of the Federation;Head of Civil Service of the Federation;
6. 37 Federal Permanent Secretaries;
7. Nigerian Center for Disease Control (NCDC); and
8. Other key ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs) of the federal government.

Calls and conferences are secured with end to end encryption within GBB operated government network. GBB also has the capacity to provide both public and private sector organizations secure and reliable telepresence services from its state-of-the-art unified communication services (UCS) platform.

In this regard, Nigerians are to rest, assured that the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy will continue to use technology to ensure that there are no interruptions in crucial government meetings.  Virtual meetings will go ahead with all relevant stakeholders in a secure and reliable manner as we collectively tackle this challenge to humanity.