By Joel Popoola

Constant political arguments about the distribution of aid to those affected by COVID-19 crisis prove the value of increased use of digital payments of palliative by the government.

As a leading Nigerian technology entrepreneur, I welcome the announcement by the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar-Farouk, that the government is pilotinggreater use of digital payments  to get money to people who need it.

While announcing an increased role for state governors for the overseeing of the distribution of palliatives to cushion the effects of COVID-19, the minister stated that new technology was also being used to get help to those in need faster.

No doubt, this is overdue. Govern-ments across Africa  are already implementing similar measures to shift a greater proportion of financial transactions to mobile money from cash — which the World Health Organisation, WHO, has as a major source of spreading the coronavirus.

Research suggests140m Nigerians will own a smartphone by 2025 . Almost half of young Nigerians now own a smart phone, with researchfrom analysts Pew  showing that 48 percent of 18-34-year-olds, and 39 percent of all adults, access the internet using their mobile telephone.

To put those figures into context, only 38 percent of Nigerians voted in our last presidential election.

Nigeria is still a very young democracy, but our politics and institutions are extremely old. This was the thinking behind my own Rate Your Leader app.

The free app also allows votes to identify and contact their elected representatives at the touch of a button, direct from their phones or tablets – allowing them to rapidly receive important advice and information.

Once upon a time, that information might have come from word of mouth. But those days are gone. Now, it’s impossible. Rate Your Leader helps politicians engage directly with people who elected them, helping them understand what matters most to the people who elect them and build relationships of trust with the electorate, as well as transmitting vital information in a crisis like the coronavirus outbreak.

Technology like this will be key to surviving the current crisis and to take our nation to the next level when we have overcome it.

Delivering financial support by hand and in cash is not just incredibly ineffective and inefficient – and in a time of social distancing, downright dangerous – it does nothing for our confidence in the political institutions we are relying on more than ever.

Nigeria’s response to the COVID-19 crisis has been characterised by constant political rowing about delivering financial support for those affected by the lockdown and economic downturn.

Historically too much money given out by government has ended up in the wrong hands.

As a result, politicians quite rightly don’t trust each other to distribute those resources fairly and transparently and are at each other’s throats when they should be working hand in hand in the national interest.

Using digital technology to distribute these funds isn’t just safer and doesn’t just get support to people who need it at the touch of the button, it makes it much easier to see where it has gone, make sure it has arrived, and ensure that it doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. It can only improve not just the performance of governmental organisations but also their reputation.

Enhanced transparency is critical to Rate Your Leader’s mission to improve the reputation of Nigerian politics using digital technology, and we welcome the steps government is taking to extend this principle throughout public life and urge them not to end these endeavours when this crisis has passed but to build on them. Nigeria has the potential to become Africa’s first digital democracy. We are witnessing an important first step, but political will and ambition will be key to ensuring that we deliver on that potential.

ALSO READ: COVID-19 palliatives: ‘Why Nigerians, politicians have crisis of trust’

I also found it imperative to pay a perfect tribute to my former boss at the United Bank for Africa ,UBA, the late Malam Abba Kyari, who was yet another tragic casualty of coronavirus.

It scarcely seems possible that 20 years have passed when our path crossed in the most organised bank in Africa, but it was very clear tome all those years ago that Kyari was destined to lead our nation from the very heart of government. I can only hope I impressed him as much while working together.

I write today as part of a new generation of Nigerian technology entrepreneurs – and in a funny way, Abba Kyari was even part of the inspiration behind my technology.

Kyari introduced the 360 Appraiser System for improving the bank’s governance. This initiative got me thinking for the first time that if businesses, organisations and even nations are to succeed, decision-makers must be genuinely accountable for their decisions. It’s this philosophy that led me to develop Rate Your Leader – an app designed to directly connect elected representatives and the people who elected them, improving politics by improving political accountability. The app doesn’t just connect people to the politicians who serve them at the touch of a button. It also allows voters to rate their local representatives for responsiveness.

Across Nigeria, Rate Your Leader is now helping politicians engage directly with people who elected them.

• Popoola, a Nigerian technology entrepreneur and creator of Rate Your Leader app, writes from Lagos.
• Vanguard