By Martin Ekpeke
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has disclosed that, by enforcing the policy on Treasury Single Account (TSA), Nigeria as a country has been able to save N4.7 billion every month since May 2015 when he assumed office.
Buhari, who stated this while declaring this year’s eNigeria Conference, organised by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) earlier today in Abuja, said apart from consolidating over 20,000 accounts, resulting into about N4.7 billion monthly savings, the TSA policy has also facilitated transparency, accountability and ease of transactions and payments between Government and businesses as well as Government and citizens.
“You may recall that on assumption of office, we enforced the policy on Treasury Single Account (TSA). 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 N4.7 billion monthly savings,” he disclosed.
Apert for the Treasury Single Account policy, another initiative leveraging ICT to make a huge impact on the economy, according to the President is the introduction of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) and Bank Verification Number (BVN).
He noted the implementation has helped to eliminate the menace of ghost workers, thereby reducing waste in the system by saving the government over N20 billion monthly.
On local content patronage, Buhari said the present administration recently issued an Executive Order mandating all ministries, departments and agencies to give preference to locally manufactured goods and services in their procurement of information technology services.
He stated that such measures are part of the deliberate efforts at encouraging local manufacture of ICT infrastructure, creating job opportunities, providing investment opportunities as well as strengthening our currency. We commend NITDA’s efforts on fostering the patronage of indigenous IT products and services through continuous engagement with indigenous OEMs, relevant stakeholders and other laudable initiatives.
According to him, ICT plays a pivotal role with agencies of government, such as the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) which have leaned on ICT in improving public service delivery in an efficient and transparent manner. So far, 31 reforms have been completed by the Council and these reforms are already making a noticeable impact on our economic diversification efforts.
