Members of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and the Information Systems and Audit Control Association (ISACA) have seen the need for the government at all levels to adopt full digitalisation in all its processes for a paradigm shift in the nation.

The Managing Partner of Iroh Godson & Co, Dr Godson Iroh made this clarion call at the recent hybrid 14th Annual Conference of the ISACA Abuja on the theme, “Digital Innovation and the Future of Work: Implications for Community, Industry and Governance” which was held in Abuja.

“If our country, especially those in charge of governance, will adopt full digitalisation in all the processes – which is about the people, process and technology – it will be a paradigm shift from the past,” says Iroh.

While commending tax pro max at the FIRS the auditor admitted that “It has changed tax practice for the administrator, the taxpayer and the practitioner. Once the government cycles and all the ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) adopt digitalisation and start operating the digital ecosystem, it will help a lot in reducing manual participation”.

Although the managing partner warned of possible risks associated with digitisation like personal influence, he assured that individuals changing things at their will would be reduced drastically.

He reiterated: “Digitalisation is the way to go. We are encouraging that whether it is the private sector or government, everyone should key into it because IT has brought the world into a global village. And ISACA is taking the lead to ensure that everybody is taking the loop into the digital world.”

With Iroh Godson & Co as a firm of chartered accountants, chartered information system auditors, chartered tax consultants, certified fraud examiners and certified forensic accountants among others, he hinted, “We are starting with people in our firm who are eager to be certified members of ISACA,” says Iroh. 

On his part, the Senior Manager/Head of the Financial Reporting Unit, Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Ikani Yunusa said IT experts are thinking of IT applications that would result in a significant positive impact on the lives of the people, the country, and those driving it.

“Nigeria is not lagging in digital transformation. Nigeria is making progress. Take an instance in the area of personal data management. We have the law proposed by NITDA and passed into law by the National Assembly that regulates how personal data are collected, used, stored, transmitted and managed which gives Nigeria an edge and a level of comfort for our external stakeholders and business entity to believe in our system.

“Today you can see that a lot of them are ready to do business with Nigeria because we have the system in place and we are still trying to improve on that,” he emphasised.

Ikani noted that Nigeria is looking inward to see how they can deploy different types of technology to reduce, if not eliminate, those incidents because the country and the treasury are bleeding.

We cannot afford to continue in that direction and I rest assured that there will be a way out since there’s a political way to do so.

The past ISACA Abuja chapter president also recommended to the federal government, “There are ways in IT governance you can seek for expert opinions that are specific to the issue you want to solve. We should explore those ways and get the right technology to manage that situation.
 
For Taofeek Babayeju, the CEO of iCentra, data is the hallmark of this dispensation. “The way the world is going right now big corporations and even small organisations are using data to predict the behaviour of their clients and take decisions within the association.”

He added that the whole essence of digital transformation and digital innovation in the digital age is to imagine the customer experience. “Organizations are doing this so they can make informed decisions and the informed decision.”

According to Babayeju, the key to unlocking this economy is to have the right identity management. He recommended: “If we can identify every Nigerian and know who they are, where they are, and what they do, it’s easier to plan for them, understand where they are and put them to proper use in terms of tax collection, and income generation and target their needs, usefulness and value they’re creating for the economy.”

The iCentra CEO hinted further that the government can predict if they use better data capturing, and analysing. “This is done all over the world so we don’t sit down and be thinking for the citizens. We need to understand the citizens and how they are behaving.”