The Central Bank on Monday kicked off its six region public sector enlightenment forum on the implementation of end-to-end electronic payment of all forms of government, taxes, salaries and pensions in the country.

A statement by the bank on Tuesday said, “As part of efforts to ensure that its ambition towards enforcing electronic payment system in the country succeeds, the public sector sensitisation forum is for both ministries and agencies in states and local governments across the country. It is spread across the six geo-political zones in the country.”

The statement noted that those to attend included commissioners of Finance, accountants general, directors of Finance, suppliers and  all those involved in payments and collections in ministries, departments and agencies and  local governments.

The Acting Director, Banking and Payment System Department, CBN, Mr. Gaius Emokpae, said that the campaign became pertinent due to the insufficient enthusiasm that had been displayed by MDAs towards the Federal Government directive that all payments made by MDAs should be done electronically.

The statement said, “Further to the presidential directive that with effect from January 1, 2009, all payments by MDAs and parastatals should be made electronically, the CBN introduced e-Manual as a short-term measure to ensure immediate compliance pending when the structures for an end-to-end process which does not allow for any manual intervention in electronic payment processing are in place.

“In order to address these challenges, the management of the CBN recently approved three important guidelines aimed at ensuring straight-through-process for electronic payments in both public and private organisations in Nigeria.”

Source: Punch