Boosting Efficiency: Ogun State Embraces E-Planning, Automation for Seamless Planning Processes

Towards enhancing the accessibility of physical planning services to the citizenry, the Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development through its agency, Ogun State Planning and Development Permit Authority has organised a one-day training on e-planning and automation of planning processes.

The Acting General Manager, OGPDPA, TPL. Idowu James said the training held at the Conference Room of the Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development was for Town Planners, Administrators of the website, and Programme Analysts to understand how to perform their statutory duties of evaluating documents and granting building permit approvals through the website being built for the Ministry.

According to him, the automation of physical planning processes would make such services accessible to investors within Nigeria and in the diaspora, thereby improving the revenue generation portfolio of the State, saying “over time, the analog way of processing permits will become obsolete, as the agency transits to the digital technology in keeping with the requirements of modern times”.

Also speaking, the Director, Department of Urban Development, TPL. Rufus Talabi charged the participants to familiarise themselves with the e-planning technology, as this would make them more productive in the performance of their respective duties, also enhancing transparency and accountability in the workflow.

The training was facilitated by the Bureau of Information Technology and was divided into two phases, teaching the administrators of the website how to work on the backend to monitor, collate, and update information about applications, the second was non how users would make payments through the websites, initiate, as well as track the progress of their applications.

Responding on behalf of the participants, a Zonal Town Planning Officer, TPL. Taiwo Adeoye, appreciated the management of the Ministry and Authority for the training, saying it would make their service delivery more efficient by eradicating bottlenecks in processing applications for building plan approvals.

Credit: Sfojoemmanuela