Federal Gov’t Urged To Leverage Tech For Enhanced Revenue Collections

The Federal Government has been called upon to deploy the use of technology in order to harmonise various revenue collection streams to enhance national development.

Stakeholders within the technology sector made the call during a two-day Second Technology Ecosystem Dialogue (TED) summit organised by the Young Innovators of Nigeria (YIN) to mark its 10 years anniversary in Abuja on Wednesday with the theme “Securing Nigeria’s Revenue Streams: The Power of Technology.”

In his remarks, the National Commissioner, Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) Dr. Vincent Olatuji, said the use of technology for e-commerce and revenue generation had raised a new concern for data privacy and protection.

The NDPC boss, who was represented by Mr Babatunde Bamigboye, Head of Legal, Enforcement and Regulations, said the commission advocated privacy by design and default to achieve data protection while collecting revenue.

“What we can do from the point of data collection and revenue generation, is to avail people of technology they can understand in their language so that they can take necessary measures to protect themselves.

“By adopting privacy by design and default, we will be able to identify key principles that can follow in terms of what data to be collected for revenue generation.

“In collecting data for revenue generation, you must ensure the people trust the process to be transparent and that can be achieved by collaborations,” he said.

He also admonished institutions with the mandate of revenue collection to ensure the implementation of the Nigeria Data Protection Act.

He said, “we are looking at the diversification of the economy and that has to bring in a number of new frontiers, there will be risks on critical and public infrastructure.

“All of these will require data protection and that is why in any situation, we recommend strict implementation of the data protection act.”

He called on young innovators to continue on the path of constructive innovation, in spite of the activities of bad state actors.

Mr Andrew Abu, founder of YIN, during his remarks, lamented that revenue collection systems in the country were cumbersome and were discouraging lots of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) from thriving.

Abu said that achieving inclusive e-Government processes would require a one government system whereby government institutions don’t work in silos.

“For us to achieve e-governance, we must practice one government on a single platform, open government initiative such that agencies of government have an idea of projects ongoing in other government institutions.

“Government organisations should look at areas of collaboration to deliver service to Nigerians and to make services easier for common Nigerians to access,” he said.

The founder called on the youth to wake up to the challenges of Nigeria and be part of the solutions to the problems.

On her part Mrs Kate Simlek, Chief Executive Officer of the Stalwart Group, stated that technology was the future, simplifies processes, shortens time and reduces cost.

Simlek said that with the application of technology, like Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things, revenue could be collected even to the grassroots.

She added that the government needed to come up with enabling policies, build the enabling environment and encourage the ease of doing business.

Mr Adesola Akinsanya, President, Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA), said the country needed to take advantage of the opportunities in the technology space to improve revenue generation streams.

“We need to leverage software development, enterprise management, process monitoring, because they can help the government and the people to monitor activities in the revenue ecosystem.

“There is technology to monitor these things and can give real-time reporting to support the person in charge, it will help get accurate data and thereby generate resources for the country,” he stated.