Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF), Ahmed Idris has disclosed that 739,580 staff of the Federal Government (FG) are currently enrolled on the Integrated Payroll Personnel Information System (IPPIS) platform through which their salaries are paid.
Speaking when members of the Senate Committee on ICT paid an oversight visit to the Treasury House in Abuja, Idris said the staff were drawn from the Navy, Air Force, Army, Police and Immigration.
Others are Civil Defence, Correctional Service, 63 per cent of ASUU among others.
He said his office has keyed into several initiatives such as Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS), IPPIS, Treasury Single Account (TSA), Audit Modernisation, Open Treasury Portal and Revenue and Investment Monitoring Dashboard, adding that these reforms are technology-based information and communication ICT applications and content.
Notable among these are GIFMIS, IPPIS, TSA and Open Treasury Portal which are web-based.
“To implement the TSA on the application is a huge task that must be driven by experts because of the online, real time, budget based, and web based. Also, the office is manned by more than 99 per cent ICT compliant staff because what we do is ICT related,” he said.
According to him, “Nigeria has adopted International Public Sector Accounting Standard (IPSAS)- which is the preparation of public financial management worldwide, as well as National Chart of Account (NCoA) that gives direction on account classification accordingly.
“The office has a clear mandate on what should be published weekly, monthly and on annual basis in order to limit Federal Government spending hence, MDAs are expected to publish their spending on the Open Treasury Portal with full details of beneficiaries.”
The AGF reiterated that through the assistance of National Security Adviser (NSA), Galaxy Backbone (GBB), and National Information and Technology Development Agency (NITDA), the ICT infrastructure have been protected and fortified from cyber hackers.
In addition, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS), Petroleum Training Development Fund (PTDF), and solution providers like Remitta and SystemSpec have assisted in terms of training of staff in ICT.
Chairman of the committee, Yakubu Oseni in his remarks stated that “the advancement of ICT has accelerated the pace of globalisation and has completely impacted on life and work, as well as the pivot for transformation of economies today.
“It is pertinent to note, seriously too, that criminal elements around the world have chosen to turn ICT revolution into a nightmare.
“The gains of digital technology are being dampened by rapid evolution of cybersecurity threat landscape, with increased attacks in both sophistication and severity.
“The country still lags behind in infrastructure sophistication, data management and digital security and knowhow, which are critical to the development agenda.”
He disclosed that an international conference will hold in October this year to address the gaps inherent in the ICT system.
