For effective and efficient development control to prevent inappropriate or poorly sited development, and ensure that projects/buildings are structurally strong and have the necessary facilities and infrastructure to support it, there has to be an integrated platform. This platform should allow for creating, updating and tracking of planning authorizations, building control authorizations, geospatial and planning information, monitoring and supervision of construction sites which subsequently grants all approvals electronically. It allows for real-time monitoring of development within the territory.

NIGCOMSAT has developed a comprehensive portfolio of software solutions, which addresses the operational challenges faced by any Development Control Department. The system called Development Control Information System (DevCIS) is capable of integrating and housing all activities and reports on site investigation, rendering warning notices, control actions and reports on certain decisions made by the Department online real-time. Also, enquiries from the database are made possible from desktops at various offices, internet and mobile phones.

The DevCIS suite has a good user-management and administration interface, built-in system access and high security standards, information available to users based on their roles in the system. It is easy to use, has user-friendly Graphical User Interfaces (GUI) with minimal user effort in data capture, data migration and quality check module in/out of the system and can link to other systems provided the systems have opened-standard APIs.

The NIGCOMSAT DevCIS is designed and developed as an integrated solution that would assist in automating functions and activities of development control processes through a common platform that should be time and resource sensitive. It utilizes workflow to a high degree, thus imposing discipline into the processes, while making the systems more flexible, easy to maintain, and flexible operational environment, which will ultimately enhance efficiency, productivity and output in service delivery. It also offers the most compelling solution from a project and risk perspective.

The DevCIS suite has been designed in modular form, and hence gives Development Control options to select whichever modules are required. It was specifically developed to aid the Abuja Development Control Department with high quality technologically-driven services.

According to a World Health Organization report in 2000, Nigeria was ranked 187 out of 191, with its life expectancy pegged low and about 20% of children dying before the age of 5. Also, one key parameter of Millennium Development Goal (MDG) and Nigeria’s Vision 20:2020 is to produce a health sector that supports and sustains life expectancy of not less than 70 years and reduces to the barest minimum the burden of infectious and debilitating diseases.

In that regard, NIGCOMSAT has development a Health Information Management System (HIMS) as an urgent intervention in Nigeria’s health sector which objectives include providing a unique means of identification of patients at the hospitals using RFID cards; helping to maintain a totally secured database of patients and hospital information which should be readily available.

Its advantages include, streamlining patient’s information flow; improving accuracy & legibility of, and access to, the required patient medications; providing immediate access to patient demographics, medical/social/job history, past hospitalization records, medications and test results which enable physicians to make informed decisions. It will also improve Physicians’ efficiency & effectiveness through provision of key patient information (e.g., allergies) at time of prescription; and help in improving healthcare delivery by providing medical personnel with better data access, faster data retrieval, higher quality data and more versatility in data display.

Using the Health Information Management System should provide job opportunities for computer literate as Data Entry Operator. These personnel can capture patients’ details, diagnosis, treatment and prescriptions by physicians and other vital information and in the production of RFID Card Readers.

The RFID Y-Reader, a product of NIGCOMSAT is commercially available for hospitals that require it. Having being developed, taking into cognizance the Nigerian situation which makes it easily adaptable to Nigerian hospitals, the HMIS solution is user-friendly and has context sensitive online help to guide its users.