Social media visibility of federal MDAs dropping since Q1 as CBN, Presidency lead

Investigation has revealed that “The social media visibility of leading ministries, departments and agencies of the federal government has been on the decline since the beginning of 2018”.

The report noted further that “Throughout last year, the telecoms regulator in the country, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has been leading the rest MDAs on social media presence until the beginning of 2018 Q1, when it started posting materials from three weeks to one month late till date”.

Several experts argue that the recent press release issued by the NCC on remittance of about N49.7bn to the federal within the first four months ought to have been on social media immediately the statement was issued as a sign of consistency of purpose and regulatory leadership for the industry.

It was observed that within the quarter under review, “Other MDAs including NITDA, NigComSat and NBC maintained not so regular presence in leading social media platforms including twitter, Facebook, Instagram and all other trending social media platforms”.

“However, Lagos RRS, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), The Presidency twitter handle has been on superlative performance on social media since the first quarter till date, thus raising their relevance and operational activities to over 150 million Nigerians that are currently connected online.

It was also noted that “Even the Federal Ministry of Finance failed to drive serious social media awareness campaign on Voluntary Asset and Income Declaration Scheme (VAIDS), thus causing poor enlightenment of the importance of the platform to the Nigerian citizens”.

The scheme provides an opportunity for Nigerians with assets and income that are undeclared as well as outside of the tax dragnet to declare those assets and income.

“Even though the federal government has extended the deadline for end of the window for tax defaulters to approach any tax office and made necessary correction without any form of penalty till June 30^th, there is still no clear awareness campaign to educate the populace the more while the new deadline approaches.

Some industry experts who spoke said steady presence on social media means a lot for any government agency and it is very important for regulatory agencies like NCC, NBC, NITDA based on their mandates as key drivers of government’s IT activities and programmes.