I Got Frightened When I Received the Number Of Workers On Payroll – Tinubu
Tinubu Seeks Oracle’s Help To Digitize Nigeria’s Civil Service
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has called for a partnership with Oracle, a global technology company, to reform and digitize Nigeria’s civil service at the national and sub-national levels.
The president made the call on Monday while hosting the Global Vice President of Oracle, Mr. Andres Garcia Arroyo, at the State House, Abuja.
He expressed his concern about the huge payroll of the civil service, which he said was consuming all the revenue and leaving little for infrastructure development.
Also, he said he was looking forward to working with Oracle to introduce cutting-edge technology that would enhance transparency, accountability and efficiency in the public sector.
He said: “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 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 recalled his successful collaboration with Oracle during his tenure as the Governor of Lagos State when he automated the state’s payroll system and reduced fraud and waste.
He said he was impressed by Oracle’s proven success in other sectors and countries, and urged the company to support Nigeria’s digital transformation agenda.
Also, he stressed the need for greater knowledge transfer and skills development for Nigerians through the establishment of academies and training institutions by Oracle.
He said: “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 favour of effectiveness and reliability,” the President declared.
In his remarks, Mr. Arroyo commended President Tinubu for his visionary leadership and practical achievements in governance.
He said Oracle was ready to offer Nigeria a free national diagnostic of the current situation in the public service and propose a comprehensive digital transformation plan that would address the challenges and opportunities in various sectors.
He said: “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 to dimension across sectors the scale of solution required. We look forward to partnering with you again,” the Oracle VP concluded.
