Business
Minister Urges Electronic Revenue Collection System
The Ministry of Aviation in Abuja directed all agencies
under it to adopt the automation processing in revenue collection to stop loss
of government funds.
This is contained in a statement signed by Mr Joe Obi, the
Special Adviser to Minister of Aviation, Princess Stella Oduah, and made
available to The Tide’s source.
The Minister decried the collection of revenue manually
before the directive, noting that the former system had led to huge losses as a
result of the leakages inherent in the manual procedure.
Director General of NCAA, Dr Harold Demuren, and other Heads
of Agency in the Ministry were also quoted in the statement as describing the
old system of revenue collection as fraudulent.
“The former manual process of revenue collection was fraught
with a lot of challenges. Apart from the leakages, the agencies were being owed
heavily by airlines and other bodies we provide with services.
“Therefore, we are very pleased with the new development
because every agency will now have its share of revenue deducted and remitted
to it at source automatically.
“Moreover, there is an automated window where every agency
can view every transaction, making the system very transparent and efficient
one.
“Aviation agencies had literally been using baskets to fetch
water and you know what you get when you use a basket to fetch water, the
system was fraught with too many leakages.
“Fortunately, that era is behind us now,’’ Demuren said.
According to the statement, agencies that are captured in
the exercise include the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), the
Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), and the Nigerian Civil Aviation
Authority (NCAA).
The Minister stated that “First Bank of Nigeria Plc, in
tandem with Experts and professional bodies like International Air Transport
Association (IATA) SITA, and Avitech; a Software Provider, amongst others would
lead the collection process.
“Avitech is to provide the automation platform and has a
tripartite agreement with the NCAA, the airline operators and their individual
banks’’.