THE Federal Government has been advised to focus more on technology in order to accelerate national development.

The Managing Director, Dragnet Solutions, a screening and Computer Based Testing (CBT) solutions provider, Mr. Robert Ikazoboh, made the call in Lagos at the weekend.

Ikazoboh said that though government had done well with respect to deploying technology to advance national development, more still needed to be done in order to sustain the pace of development.

“First we must give kudos to the government of the day because the authorities seem to realise the importance of technology. For example, if we look at the National Identification Number (NIN) project being championed by the National Identification Management Commission (NIMC), it is largely technology driven because the process will rely on biometrics. And then we have the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board adopting the Computer Based Testing in this year’s examination, which is a first in its history. All of this is good, but we believe that we can still do more because technology offers us so much,” he said.

Other areas that Ikazoboh believed government could deploy technology for better performance included the education sector and the recruitment process in the public sector.

“Government should consider adopting e-recruitment especially in the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs). If we had deployed e-recruitment, we probably wouldn’t have had the recent controversies that trailed the recruitment process in MDAs. Dragnet Solutions has always maintained that the process is better, faster and most importantly, more credible than the manual mode of recruitment.” he said.

In the education sector, the Dragnet boss urged the government to adopt computer based testing in educational institutions across the country. “I’ve said it before that JAMB deserves commendation for adopting the CBT exams. But we shouldn’t just stop there. We are in the technology age and we must begin to familiarise our students with the concept of ICT. The best way to do this is to introduce CBT in our schools especially the secondary and tertiary institutions. Don’t forget that the process also has its advantages, because it is more efficient and credible. With CBT, issues like mercenaries will be a thing of the past and it is going to reduce examination malpractice to the barest minimum,” he said.

Dragnet Solutions is Nigeria’s leading e-recruitment and talent management firm. The company is the promoter of Dragnet Screening Services, Nigeria’s foremost e-recruitment solution, and Scholastica, Nigeria’s first e-scholarships and bursary management solution.

The company is also the brain behind GradExchange, Nigeria’s first e-recruitment portal, which connects employers with pre-profiled and pre-tested graduates. It also owns Biometrica, a leading solution in biometric data base management.