IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

Electronic Payment Providers Association of Nigeria (E-PPAN), the organiser of e-Government Summit, has said the target of the 2016 edition of the summit is to increase internally generated revenue (IGR), for state governments as well as the federal government.

The association also announced a shift in the date of the summit from July to September this year, to enable it make adequate preparation and awareness creation that will boost the summit.

An electronic payment expert, Deremi Atanda, has urged Federal Government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) to embrace the use of technology, especially the electronic or e-payment platform to collect revenue, arguing that the option provides convenience and improved revenue generation to government.

Atanda, who is also an Executive Director at Systemspecs, lamented that MDAs were still faced with several challenges on how to implement Federal Government’s electronic payment policy, said there are lots of e-payment options now open for MDAs to collect government funds.

A statement from the commission’s Head of Media, Mr. Folu Olamiti, quoted the ICPC Chairman, Ekpo Nta, as saying in a recent television interview that their operatives were already in the fields visiting various banks to check whether the “person whose name is on the nominal roll and on the pay roll in a particular ministry is the same person receiving it in the bank.”

“These monies are very important, if you lose N200 for 10 days in one month, you already lost N2,000 to the government.”

On a recent afternoon in the Ikorodu area of Lagos, scores of commuters waited at the bus station for the arrival of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) buses to convey them to their destinations. A PREMIUM TIMES reporter joined in the wait, the aim being to ascertain the ease of commute for Lagosians. About an hour and a half later, one of the buses arrived.

President of NACCIMA, Dr. Herbert Ajayi, who made the call in Lagos at the Association’s review of the economy said CBN should introduce other policies to make paperless transactions cheaper and attractive.

“Bank Charges on non-cash transactions could be reviewed downwards for customers, as incentive,” he said.

The minister stated this at the closing ceremony of top management retreat entitled "Meeting Stakeholders' Expectation Today & In the Future" organised by the Nigerian Postal Service in Abuja. The minister said though NIPOST is declining in the area of postal service, the ministry has engaged the Central Bank of Nigeria to see how NIPOST will key into the CBN's financial inclusion strategy by using NIPOST assets across the length and breadth of the country to offer services to everybody irrespective of the location.

Nigeria’s Accountant General of the Federation, Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo said the introduction of e-payment is aimed at eliminating payment bureaucracy associated with handling cash transfers and check payments. Dankwambo also noted that this development will strengthen the efficiency of doing business with the government and also help to check corruption.

Governor Timipre Sylva said this on Monday at the Government House, Yenagoa, while receiving the report of a government staff audit, which will reportedly save his administration about N3.5bn.

The audit showed that the state government had 3,867 ghost workers on its payroll.

The Accountant-General of the Federation, Mr. Ibrahim Dankwambo, disclosed this in Abuja on Wednesday at a one-day workshop on e-payment with the Directors of Finance and Accounts in the Ministries, Departments and Agencies.

Earlier Benue State Government, Kaduna Petrochemical and Refining Company and some Federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies have signed on Intercontinental Bank for the e-payment system in line with the latest drive by government towards transparency and effectiveness in revenue collection and management of public finance.

The concept has been described as a welcome novelty. However, its implementation has been dogged by controversies.

Further, all cheques-in-transit must get to either the Central Bank or the commercial banks by June or they will not be honoured. These disclosures were made yesterday in Abuja by the Accountant-General of the Federation, Alhaji Ibrahim Dankwambo, who said they were in pursuit of government’s e-payment initiative to curb corruption in government businesses.

Rising from a two-day fifth edition of Smartcard exhibition and Electronic Payment (e-payment) forum 2005, recently in Lagos, participants made one point that must not be forgotten in a hurry.

The point being the consensus that Information and Communications Technology (ICT) is the key to the nation's long-standing quest for global relevance, especially in this e-payment era through deployment of smartcards.

Precisely, for government to achieve more in the campaign, a lot of investments, education, training and re-training must be carried out to have any reasonable success in the campaign.

It would be recalled that FG had in the last quarter of last year made it mandatory that payments to personnel and contractors would from January 2009, be made electronically, according to the Accountant General of the Federation.

From November 1 this year, the fees will be only collected through ‘electronic payment cards’.

An announcement on the municipality website says, “In accordance with the government guidance to implement E.government, Muscat Municipality would like to announce that all collection of fees will be through electronic payment cards with effect from November 1, 2013.”

Cash payments will not be accepted at the Royal Hospital registration counter starting from next year, the hospital said in a tweet. Starting from January 1st, 2017, only electronic payment via debit/credit cards will be accepted. The hospital called on patients to bring their cards when visiting the hospital.

A unique system for mobile payment clearing and switching (MpClear) was launched on Sunday, said the Central Bank of Oman (CBO) in a statement. This will enhance the payment infrastructure of the country.

With the launch of this system, Oman is the first country within the GCC countries to implement such system under the Central Bank leadership.

Revenues handled by the portal increased to OMR 365 million last year, up from OMR 207 million a year earlier. The number of electronic transactions effected using Oman’s National ePayment Gateway nearly doubled in 2017, reported Oman Observer.

In a statement, Information Technology Authority (ITA), the operator of the National ePayment Gateway, said that around 1.9 million transactions were made using the portal in 2017, up from around 1.1 million in 2016.

The state-of-the-art e-payment solution will support the delivery of e-services of the public sector and will also assist the private sector's moves into e-commerce. ePG will enable efficient electronic transactions and simplify the processing of payment transactions for electronic services within the country. It will be operational in line with Oman's forthcoming e-Government Gateway, the UBAR Portal.