E-PPAN targets increased IGR for Federal Government, states

This year’s E-Government Summit, being organised by the Electronic Payment Providers Association of Nigeria (E-PPAN) to address the dwindling Internally generated revenue (IGR), especially by state governments in the country, has been shifted to September.

Executive Secretary and Chief Executive Officer, E-PPAN, Mrs. Regha Onajite, who announced this in Lagos said the summit earlier scheduled for July 12th & 13th will now hold from September 27th and 28th.

Onajite said the summit holding at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre Abuja, was moved to guarantee active participation of more stakeholders from both the private and public sectors in the summit.

“This year’s summit with the theme: “Attaining Increased IGR; Efficiency and Accountability in Government through Smart Innovation,” draws home the current issue facing state governments and the vast opportunity in leveraging e-payment and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as an alternative measure in generating and increasing IGR in an accountable and efficient manner,” she said.

She explained that the timeliness of the summit gives all stakeholders the opportunity to key into the summit, which will showcase an array of smart solutions to boost IGR in the state government, “instead of solely depending on the Federal Government for statutory allocation, which has been greatly affected by the dwindling oil revenue.”

With reports indicating that 15 states in the Federation are going bankrupt due to declining IGR coupled with the apparent lack of transparency and accountability in the traditional way revenue collection, Onajite said deployment of innovative and smart ICT solutions and adoption of best-practice strategies will rescue states from their current financial doldrums.

This year’s e-government summit is being organised, in partnership with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and put together by a Local Organising Committee made up of representatives from CBN, Galaxy Backbone, FSS2020, NITDA, National Pension Commission (PENCOM), FSS 2020 and E-PPAN.

According to her, “the summit, therefore, gives every state governments an unparallel opportunity to amass knowledge, expertise, and solutions that will keep them afloat in the face of impending bankruptcy.

“To extensively address the theme of the summit, the two-day intensive discourse will be centered on providing real-time solutions that will catalyse a paradigm shift from the norm in revenue generation, data management and opportunities for shared infrastructure in government to reduce cost and overhead, among others, to delivering developmental impacts in addressing the multi-faceted and complex challenges we face in Nigeria.”