Nigeria Saves N4bn Daily From Digitalisation Of OAGF’S Operations – AGF
Amina Hussaini
Nigeria is saving a whopping sum of N4 billion daily (at least N120 billion) from the digitalisation of the nation’s Treasury Office, the Office of Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF).
The OAGF is also collaborating with the Senate Committee on Information and Communication Technology and Cybercrime and the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) to secure all ICT infrastructure in the country.
The Accountant General of the Federation (AGF), Ahmed Idris, disclosed this on Tuesday in Abuja during a meeting with members of the Senate Committee on ICT and Cybercrime.
According to Idris, “The full embrace of ICT saves the country about N4 billion daily that would have been gulped by manual operations.
“We’ve achieved substantial gross savings in the sum of about N21 billion in respect of 602 Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) paid on IPPIS.”
He added that the OAGF can’t toy with cyber security because bulk of its operations have become fully digitized.
Idris noted that the collaboration with ONSA was to further secure its ICT infrastructure and quickly close any identified gaps that can compromise its operations.
“In recognition of the significant role played by the OAGF in the automation of Public Financial Management (PFM), the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) has designated GIFMIS and IPPIS infrastructure as Critical National Information Infrastructure (CNII).
“Therefore, the OAGF and ONSA have 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, to this end, the following measures has been
put in place to mitigate risk and enhance national cyber security.
In his remarks, the Chairman, Senate Committee on ICT and Cybercrime, Senator Yakubu Oseni said that criminal elements around the world have chosen to turn ICT revolution into a nightmare, urging all ministries and agencies to up their game.
“The gains of digital technology are being dampened by rapid evolution of cybersecurity threat landscape, with increased attacks in both sophistication and severity.
“Reports indicate that there is currently a dramatic rise in cybercrime such as the ransomware epidemic, the refocusing of malware from personal computers and laptops to smartphones and mobile devices, the deployment of billions of under-protected Internet of Things devices, the legion of hackers-for-hire and more sophisticated launching of attacks on governments, defence infrastructure, businesses, educational establishments, etc.
“Indeed, the invasion of the cyberspace comes with grave consequences, and is already costing the world huge losses in trillions of dollars, and is posing serious danger to life.
“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,” Oseni said.
He admitted that Nigeria still lags behind in infrastructure sophistication, data management and digital security and knowhow, which are critical to the development agenda.
Besides, he said funding of digital technology infrastructure is inadequate compared to the enormity of need and challenges therein.
“On the other hand, resources allocated are not properly utilised. In such cases, there is nothing much to show in spite of huge financial commitments into building ICT infrastructure.
“Manpower development in digital technology is equally a far cry. Even in Africa, Nigeria is at the bottom of cybersecurity manpower ratio to total population. Our institutions of learning do not seem to understand the world we live in today. Indeed, our cybersecurity consciousness and awareness rating does not come before that of any other country in the world” Oseni explained.
He said fresh experiences arising from the COVID-19 pandemic have threatened the digital ecosystem, and have further espoused the need for accelerated development in ICT.
He called for stronger collaboration between all interests and the legislature to galvanise rapid development in digital technology and cybersecurity ecosystem in the country is not needed any later than now.
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