Galaxy Backbone humbled by UN award - Ilukwe

Gerald Ilukwe, MD, Galaxy Backbone plc

Managing Director, Galaxy Backbone plc, Mr. Gerald Ilukwe has said that his organization is humbled by emerging the United Nations (UN) best in the Whole-of-Government Approach in the Information Age with its 1-GOV.net initiative.

He told DigitalSENSE Business News on return from receiving the award in Bahrain that Galaxy Backbone had over the years dedicated itself to selling  the initiative to government agencies  which initially resisted the product, and was not working for the sake of awards.

According to him, his team was quietly doing its job in Abuja and stumbled on the award category and decided to give it a shot.

"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 said.

Ilukwe also urged other promoters of Nigerian initiatives to explore windows offered by the United Nations Organisation and similar organisations, elucidating that Nigerian music for example is preferred abroad now to even Western music.

Secretary General of the United Nations, Mr. Ban  Ki-moon represented by Wu Hongbo, the 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.”

DigitalSENSE Business News gathered that winners of the awards were 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.

He recalled that Galaxy Backbone plc is an Information and Communications Technology Services provider under the Federal Ministry of Communications Technology.

Ilukwe stressed that 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.

He emphasized that Galaxy Backbone has the mandate to build and operate a nationwide broadband network that provides IP-based Connectivity services to all Federal Government MDAs and institutions, with focus 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.

Correspondent/DigitalSENSE Business News
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