The Federal Government on Tuesday announced that it saved N21bn by implementing the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System across ministries, departments and agencies.

It also stated the government was saving about N4bn daily as a result of the deployment of IPPIS across 602 MDAs.

The Accountant-General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris, explained that with the introduction of IPPIS, the government had reduced its spendings on manual accounting operations across its MDAs.

Idris disclosed this when the Senate Committee on Information Communication, Technology and Cybercrime visited his office as part of its oversight functions.

On cyber security, Idris told his guests that his agency was collaborating with the Office of the National Security Adviser to protect critical national information infrastructure from cyber-criminals.

On his part, the Chairman of the Committee, Yakubu Oseni, said Nigeria was currently faced with severe digital security challenges.

He said findings from the committee’s various oversight functions at ministries, departments and agencies of government had shown that the digital technology space in Nigeria was weak and had so much gaps.

Oseni said Nigeria was still lagging behind in infrastructure sophistication, data management and digital security.

He called for accelerated development in the digital technology space in Nigeria so as to ease the running of businesses and delivery of services.

He said:

“Our institutions of learning seem not to understand the world we live in today. Indeed our cyber security consciousness and awareness does not come before that of any other country in the world, thus the need for accelerated development in ICT.”

“We need therefore to galvanise accelerated ICT development in Nigeria, particularly to ease businesses and service delivery, to widen employment opportunities, and expand revenue sources for the country.”