More strategic details are still emerging from Tuesday’s address of President Muhammadu Buhari while declaring open the 2017 e-Nigeria Conference organised by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) held at the International Conference Centre, Abuja.
He revealed that his administration was saving about N4.7bn monthly through the full implementation of its policy on the Treasury Single Account (TSA) and N500bn using the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).
Business Hilights recalls the TSA took off effective September 2015 which translates to 25 months as at end of October 2017.
Going by the monthly savings, the government had saved about N117.5bn in implementing the TSA scheme which former administration had wished to start on March 28, 2015, but could not due to weak political will and fears of fast approaching 2015 general elections.
In the case of IPPIS, government saves about N20bn monthly from wrong payments that would been made to eliminated ‘ghost’ workers on the government’s payroll.
Apart from the savings, Buhari added that TSA compressed over 20,000 bank accounts belonging to the Federal Government had so far been consolidated into one.
Another key import of adopting electronic applications in governance, according to him, include leveraging on Information Communication Technology (ICT) to introduce Bank Verification Number (BVN).
According to him, “You may recall that on assumption of office, we enforced the policy on Treasury Single Account. Today, we are all witnesses to the impact it has made on our financial management. We have so far consolidated over 20,000 accounts, resulting into about N4.7bn monthly savings.
“In addition, the policy facilitated transparency, accountability and ease of transactions and payments between government and businesses as well as government and citizens.”
“Another initiative leveraging on ICT and making huge impact on the economy is the introduction of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System and Bank Verification Number.
“Its implementation has helped to eliminate the menace of ghost workers thereby reducing waste in the system by saving government over N20bn monthly.”
