President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Monday expressed deep concern about Nigeria’s overbloated civil service payroll at federal and state levels of government.
The president opened up while speaking at a State House, Abuja meeting with the Global Vice President of Oracle, Mr. Andres Garcia Arroyo.
President Tinubu informed his guest that with cutting edge technology, the country would digitize the public service and surgically apply public money for growth.
According to him: “Each time they give me the payroll number, I get so frightened. Where am I going to get the capital to develop the infrastructure we desperately require if the payroll of 1% – 2% of the population is consuming all the revenue? I think we need a tight technological control that can check and balance all necessary control points of our transaction processes. I’m looking forward to working with Oracle because I have the belief and confidence that you can do it as you have in the past.”
President Tinubu expressed his readiness to partner with global technology companies so as to ensure that data from public institutions were accurate and transparent in providing templates on which proper public sector planning and accounting could occur across sectors.
The president welcomed the company’s commitment to Nigeria’s civil service reform process and data management sector. He however lstressed the need for greater knowledge transfer through the establishment of academies and training institutions in the country.
The president believes that automation will bring about ease of doing business, digital innovation, effective identity management, efficient payroll administration and qualitative citizen-centred service delivery. He expressed confidence that Oracle’s proven success in the automation of the Lagos State payroll system during his tenure as Governor will suffice at the federal level.
“I have tested Oracle and it has worked for our success. In Lagos State, what we did in effective collaboration with you, has been copied across the states of the Federation. We can only build our institutions with accurate data and cutting edge data management capabilities that are reliable and effective. We can only rely upon our human resources for excellent service delivery to Nigerians, if they are well trained and ready to learn.
“The transfer of knowledge is essential for our nation and the continent. In this government, we believe that the only way to build our country is a bottom-up-approach and from one single sheet of paper, we can create an end-to-end solution for public administration that will rid our service of its worst tendencies in favor of effectiveness and reliability,” the President declared.
Global Vice President of Oracle, in his remarks, proposed a comprehensive digital transformation of work process at the federal level of administration, in order to achieve greater macro-economic visibility; streamline government processes for cost and time savings; and to provide the desired skills development opportunities for Nigerians.
“You have shown tremendous practical leadership throughout your career, Mr. President. We have partnered with you and we know how determined you are to achieve all that you set out to achieve. This is why we are offering Nigeria a free national diagnostic of the present situation in the public service with a view to dimensioning across sectors the scale of solution required. We look forward to partnering with you again,” the Oracle VP concluded.
