THE sum of N21bn has been saved by the Federal Government through the implementation of the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System.
The Accountant-General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris, gave the figure on Tuesday while hosting members of the Senate Committee on Information and Communications Technology and Cybercrime.
Ahmed noted that the N21bn was saved through the implementation of the IPPIS in 602 Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government.
The AGF pointed out that the full embrace of ICT was currently saving the country about N4bn daily, which would have been gulped in manual operations.
He said, “We’ve achieved substantial gross savings in the sum of about N21bn in respect of the six hundred and two MDAs paid on IPPIS.
“In recognition of the significant role played by the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation in the automation of Public Financial Management, the Office of the National Security Adviser has designated GIFMIS and IPPIS infrastructures as Critical National Information Infrastructure.”
Ahmed said the OAGF, being the hub of government’s treasury, could not toy with cyber security, especially now that the bulk of its operations had become fully digitised.
He noted that the collaboration with the Office of the National Security Adviser was to further fortify its ICT infrastructure and quickly close any identified gaps that could compromise its operations.
He said the OAGF and ONSA had been very engaged in an immense effort at protecting these infrastructure from cyber crimes in line with the vision and mission of Cybercrimes Act 2015.
In his remarks, the Chairman, Senate Committee on ICT and Cybercrime, Senator Yakubu Oseni, said that criminal elements around the world had chosen to turn ICT revolution into a nightmare, urging all ministries and agencies to up their game.
He said, “The gains of digital technology are being dampened by rapid evolution of cyber security threat landscape, with increased attacks in both sophistication and severity. In Nigeria, concern is not only about the cybersecurity threat landscape, but also about weak systems.
“Oversight findings have revealed serious gaps in digital technology in Nigeria. The country still lags behind in infrastructure sophistication, data management and digital security and knowhow, which are critical to the development agenda. In some cases, funding on digital technology infrastructure is inadequate compared to the enormity of need and challenges therein.”
He added that fresh experiences arising from the COVID-19 pandemic had exposed rampaging threats to the digital ecosystem, and had further exposed the need for accelerated development in ICT.
