Many people hardly go to banking halls anymore as they transact almost all their activities using e-payment.
Many businesses in the private sector are conducted through electronic means and a great deal of efficiency has thus been introduced into their systems.
Expectedly, government has been slow in adopting some of these new applications and as a result, many of its business activities remain in questionable manual formats.
But recently, the Federal Government took the matter very seriously as President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua in October unveiled plans to use e-payment to conduct government businesses in the coming year.
According to the plans, government contractors and civil servants will be paid through electronic means.
The President said, “There will no longer be physical contacts between accounts officials and contractors with regard to payments.”
He was also reported to have ordered that: “Henceforth, designated contractors will be paid electronically so as to avoid the current situation in which they have to bribe to be paid for work done and to ensure the payments could be easily tracked.”
It was said that the President’s action was a way to further instill transparency and accountability in the conduct of government business in the future.
The decision has already been attracting positive comments from industry experts. But the success of the e-payment plan, according to experts, depends seriously on applications that are deployed. It has often been argued that undue dependence on foreign applications could lead to other problems. This is because by design, many of these foreign applications are tailored to meet the needs of environments that are foreign to Nigeria.
While Federal Government is just taking up the initiative, some states have started using e-payment to deliver services successfully.
One of such states is Ogun, which has been using electronic means to remit payment for workers salary and other sundry payments
Speaking recently on the matter, the Accountant – General of Ogun State, Mr. Babatunde Salawu, stated that with e-payment, the state was able to effect immediate payment of salaries simultaneously across the state.
He also said the method was adopted as a way of motivating workers for high productivity. He stressed that the strategy ensured prompt payment of salaries.
According to Salawu; “The world has grown into a global village through ICT, and e-payment is the easiest way of payment anywhere, whether in the private or public sector of the economy.”
He described e-payment as an electronic means of payment which had made both lodging of staff salaries and withdrawal convenient for both government and workers.
He disclosed that with the system, workers could withdraw salaries within six hours of lodgment as against delayed lodgment of cheques and the four to five days of waiting before salaries are cashed.
While alluding to the fact that, the process of the old methods of payment was not only time wasting but also burdensome, Salawu said the e-payment had brought a lot of convenience and reduced paper wastage among other advantages in processing staff salaries.
But a point that experts also stress is the fact that the deployment of e-payment like any other technology will have its challenges. One of such is the training of manpower required for such a new regime as well as mastering the technology properly. But they argue that the benefits far outweigh the challenges.
Salawu, speaking on the Ogun State programme recalled a recent mix-up in the payment of workers salaries through the newly introduced electronic payment technology, but added the system had remained the best approach towards effective and timely payment of workers salaries and other entitlements.
The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance, Ogun State, Mr. Waheed Badru, argued that the public service had been further modernised with the e-payment innovation.
He corroborated the earlier position of the Accountant General that e-payment technology would credit salaries into workers’ accounts immediately without frustration.
The Permanent Secretary was quick to add that, with the newly introduced system, workers’ salaries could easily be reconciled even with detailed information without stress.
But in terms of solutions, investigations showed that SystemSpecs Limited, a Nigerian software firm, has some of the leading solutions such as Remita and Human Manager, being adopted in many states and in the private sector. Also, the National eGovernment Strategies has developed some other applications.
According to the Managing Director, SystemSpecs Limited, Mr. John Obaro, the move by the FG is a welcome one considering the efficiencies that this could bring to the government. He said already the firm had developed Remita and other applications in response to these challenges.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Jonah Iboma
Quelle/Source: The Punch, 30.12.2008
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