By John Ighodaro
CALABAR—The Accountant-General of the Federation, Alhaji Ibrahim Dankwambo,  has said that e-payment has come to stay as part of efforts to meet the challenges posed by a cashless society,  which the world is gradually moving into.

He spoke at the Information Technology (IT) Role Players Training of selected staff of IPPIS MDA’s in Calabar, Cross River State.

According to him, “the world is gradually moving towards a cashless economy and to avoid obvious challenges that cash transactions continues to expose our country to, the need for e-payment cannot be overemphasized.”

Continuing, he said, “the concept of IPPIS is based on government’s Public Sector Reforms Initiative component of GIFMIS and it is meant to focus mainly on ensuring effectiveness and efficiency in storage of personnel records and administration of monthly payroll.

“Having completed Pilot and Phase I, civil servants in 16 federal MDA’s making up a total population of over 55,000 are now on IPPIS payroll as at May, 2010.

As it is, workers on IPPIS now collect their salaries on or before the 20th of each month wherever they are located in the country on line, real time.

“This system has the capacity to ensure payment of salaries at any day of the month, as well as generate payment in respect of all third party beneficiaries. These beneficiaries include BIRs, PFA, NHF, cooperative societies, unions, associations among others,” he added.