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FG Reassures On Digital Economy
The Statistician-General of the Federation and Chief Executive Officer, National Bureau of Statistics, Mr Adeyemi Adeniran, has reiterated Federal Government’s commitment toward providing an enabling environment for digital economy to thrive.
Adeniran said this during the 2023 National Budget Roundtable and Panel Discussion organised by the Centre for Economic Policy and Development Research (CEPDeR), Covenant University, Ota, Ogun, yesterday.
He was represented by Mustapha Daramola, Director of Statistics, office of the Statistician-General of the Federation.
Our correspondent reports that the roundtable discussion was tagged: “National Budgeting and Digitalisation for Sustainable Development in Africa; The Nigerian Experience.”
Our correspondent also reports that the event was hosted by Covenant University in collaboration with University of Warwick, United Kingdom.
The Statistician-General said the Federal Government was working assiduously to provide a solid infrastructure for digital economy, as this was germane to solving some of the societal problems, which included unemployment, debts and poverty.
Adeniran, also a keynote speaker, said the national budget roundtable had great relevance to Nigeria, particularly at this crucial time when the economy was severely challenged, not only in Nigeria but globally.
“The country is facing significant fiscal macroeconomic challenges as revenues are slim with lower production, while expenditures are relatively increasing with huge fuel subsidies and an enormous burden of management of government businesses,” he said.
Adeniran said in recent times, digital technologies had been introduced in the public space to aid the management of public resources.
According to him, digital technologies have lowered the costs of doing government business and enhanced the speed, targeting and reliability of the delivery of government services.
“Digitalisation of government payments also has lowered administration costs, reduced opportunities for fraud, improved the targeting of welfare programmes and lowered the waiting time for recipients,” the Statistician-General said.
He emphasised that digitalisation of the budgeting processes formed a better part of the conversation of budgeting to support sustainable and inclusive public service delivery.
A second keynote speaker, Dr Williams Nwankwo, said the Federal Government’s efforts to leverage digital technology had resulted in significant improvement in transparency, accountability and efficiency in public financial management.
Nwankwo, represented by Mr Samuel Okoye, Director of ICT, Ministry of Communication and Digital economy, stressed the need for African countries to embrace digitalisation as a crucial tool for achieving sustainable development.
He listed some of the the digital tools used by the Federal Government to improve transparency and accountability to include Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS) and Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS), among others.
Academic Director for Africa, University of Warwick, Mr Franklyn Lisk, urged Nigeria and other African countries to embrace a robust digital platform supported by private sector to drive the digital economy.
Lisk stressed the need to strengthen the regulatory framework to boost digital economy so that African countries would not be cut off in this global space in terms of resources and capacity.
The Vice-Chancellor of Covenant University, Prof Abiodun Adebayo, said there was the need to enhance Nigeria’s digital infrastructure and budgeting infrastructure towards improving Digital Quality of Life index, both from government and entrepreneurial perspectives for the betterment of the people.
Adebayo said the COVID-19 crisis had shown the importance of digital opportunities and for every economy to have fully remote operational capacity.
The Nigeria Immigration Service has officially ended passport production at multiple centres, transitioning to a single, centralised system for the first time in 62 years.
Minister of Interior, Dr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, disclosed this yesterday while inspecting Nigeria’s new Centralised Passport Personalisation Centre at the NIS Headquarters in Abuja.
He stated that since the establishment of NIS in 1963, Nigeria had never operated a central passport production centre, until now, marking a major reform milestone.
“The project is 100 per cent ready. Nigeria can now be more productive and efficient in delivering passport services,” Tunji-Ojo said.
He explained that old machines could only produce 250 to 300 passports daily, but the new system had a capacity of 4,500 to 5,000 passports every day.
“With this, NIS can now meet daily demands within just four to five hours of operation,” he added, describing it as a game-changer for passport processing in Nigeria.
“We promised two-week delivery, and we’re now pushing for one week.
“Automation and optimisation are crucial for keeping this promise to Nigerians,” the minister said.
He noted that centralisation, in line with global standards, would improve uniformity and enhance the overall integrity of Nigerian travel documents worldwide.
Tunji-Ojo described the development as a step toward bringing services closer to Nigerians while driving a culture of efficiency and total passport system reform.
He said the centralised production system aligned with President Bola Tinubu’s reform agenda, boosting NIS capacity and changing the narrative for better service delivery.
The Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) has disbursed N2.225 trillion as federation revenue for the month of August 2025, the highest ever allocation to the three tiers of government and other statutory recipients.
This marks the second consecutive month that FAAC disbursements have crossed the N2 trillion mark.
The revenue, shared at the August 2025 FAAC meeting in Abuja, was buoyed by increases in oil and gas royalty, value-added tax (VAT), and common external tariff (CET) levies, according to a communiqué issued at the end of the meeting.
Out of the N2.225 trillion total distributable revenue, FAAC said N1,478.593 trillion came from statutory revenue, N672.903 billion from VAT, N32.338 billion from the Electronic Money Transfer Levy (EMTL), and N41.284 billion from Exchange Difference.
The communiqué revealed that gross federation revenue for the month stood at N3.635 trillion. From this amount, N124.839 billion was deducted as cost of collection, while N1,285.845 trillion was set aside for transfers, interventions, refunds, and savings.
From the statutory revenue of N1.478 trillion, the Federal Government received N684.462 billion, State Governments received N347.168 billion, and Local Government Councils received N267.652 billion. A further N179.311 billion (13 per cent of mineral revenue) went to oil-producing states as derivation revenue.
From the distributable VAT revenue of N672.903 billion, the Federal Government received N100.935 billion, the states received N336.452 billion, while the local governments got N235.516 billion.
Of the N32.338 billion shared from EMTL, the Federal Government received N4.851 billion, the States received N16.169 billion, and the Local Governments received N11.318 billion.
From the N41.284 billion exchange difference, the Federal Government received N19.799 billion, the states received N10.042 billion, and the local governments received N7.742 billion, while N3.701 billion (13 per cent of mineral revenue) was shared to the oil-producing states as derivation.
The Governing Council of Kenule Beeson Saro-Wiwa Polytechnic, Bori, has decried the inadequate power supply and poor state of infrastructural facilities and equipment at the institution.
The Council also appealed to the government, including Non-Governmental Organisations, agencies, as well as well-meaning Rivers people to intervene to restore and sustain the laudable gesture, dreams and aspirations of the founding fathers of the polytechnic.
The Chairman of the newly inaugurated Council, Professor Friday B. Sigalo, made this appeal during a tour of facilities at the Polytechnic, recently.
Accompanied by members of the team, Prof Sigalo emphasised the position of technology, technical and vocational education in sustainable development.
He noted that with the prospects on ground, and the programmes and activities undertaken in the polytechnic, there is no doubt that the institution would add values to the educational system in our society and foster the desired development, if the existing challenges are jointly tackled.
This was contained in a statement signed by Deputy Registrar, Public Relations, Kenpoly, Innocent Ogbonda-Nwanwu, and made available to The Tide in Port Harcourt.
The chairman who restated the intention of his team of technocrats to ensure that KenPoly enjoys desirable face-lift, said the Council would deliver on its core mandates, accordingly.
Earlier, the Rector, KenPoly Engr. Dr. Ledum S. Gwarah, commended the appointment of Professor Friday B. Sigalo as Chairman of the KenPoly Governing Council.
He described him and his team as seasoned technocrats and expressed confidence in their ability to succeed.
The Rector pledged the management’s support to the Council to ensure that KenPoly resumes its rightful place in the comity of polytechnics in the country.
Facilities visited by the Governing Council include KenPoly workshops, laboratories, skills acquisition centre, library, hostels and medical centre.
Chinedu Wosu
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