Three government agencies, the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation, NDIC, the Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, and the Nigeria Immigration Service have budgeted to spend over N8.7 billion on computer software acquisitions in 2024.
This was disclosed in the recently released government-owned enterprises (GOEs) budget for 2024 by the Ministry of Budget and National Planning.
Accordingly, NDIC leads all other government agencies in terms of money allocated for software this year, which stood at N5.2 billion, according to its budget plan.
Also, FIRS, the country’s tax agency, is planning to acquire the software with the sum of N3.5 billion, and it is the second-biggest spender among the GOEs.
Similarly, the Nigeria Immigration Service has budgeted N874.5 million to acquire the software.
The development comes despite a government-funded National Information Technology Development Agency, NITDA.
NITDA had earlier raised concerns over huge budgetary allocation for IT by public institutions without any value to show for it.
“The realization that over the years, the public funds that were spent on IT Projects were not commensurate with the value derived from such Projects and had also failed to evolve a digitally-enabled public service that will advance the citizens’ yearnings of the digital economy, hence the need to strategically reposition the deployment of IT Products and Services in Public Institutions”, it stated.
Recall that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu signed the N28.7 trillion 2024 appropriation bill into law on the first day of this year.
