- President Bola Tinubu supports partnerships with tech firms like Oracle for accurate and transparent data management in public institutions
- Tinubu emphasizes knowledge transfer, automation for efficient governance, and addressing Nigeria’s civil service payroll challenges
President Bola Tinubu has expressed support for new collaborations with global technology firms to ensure that data from public institutions is accurate and transparent in providing templates for proper public sector planning and accounting across sectors.
Speaking yesterday at the State House with Oracle’s global vice president, Andres Garcia Arroyo, the President welcomed the company’s commitment to Nigeria’s civil service reform process and data management sector, while emphasizing the need for greater knowledge transfer through the establishment of academies and training institutions in the country.
In order to promote ease of doing business, digital innovation, effective identity management, efficient payroll administration, and qualitative citizen-centred service delivery, the President cited Oracle’s proven success in automating the Lagos State payroll system during his tenure as Lagos State Governor and lauded the positive impact of technological solutions in enhancing accountability and expediting service delivery timelines without sacrificing quality.
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.
The President expressed concern about Nigeria’s bloated civil service payroll at the national and sub-national levels, saying;
Each time they give me the payroll number, I get so scared.” Where am I going to get the money to build the infrastructure that we desperately need if the payroll of 1% – 2% of the population consumes all of the revenue? I believe we require strict technological control over all necessary control points of our transaction processes. I’m looking forward to working with Oracle because I believe you can do it as well as you have in the past.
In his remarks, Oracle’s Global Vice President proposed a comprehensive digital transformation of the federal level of administration to achieve greater macroeconomic visibility, streamline government processes for cost and time savings, and provide Nigerians with the desired skill development opportunities.
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.