As Eze sat in the pew at a church where he goes most mornings to pray, his phone buzzed with a new message. His Icelandic teacher was checking in on him, giving him support.

“If you’ve worked in a particular position for a year and half or two years, you should be thinking of a higher role because the business is growing. We have a group of people we call iSON Young Leaders who were identified to be very good at what they do so they are put on the fast track. Every person that goes to the Apex award naturally goes into this category because they have done exceptionally well and we need to harness their potentials. From one year, we start preparing them and they start taking positions because they have worked in different projects before then. They have mentors who are in management who will teach them one or two things within that time frame.

If we say that what we are doing is about 25 to 30 per cent of the e-payment industry. That gives you an understanding that we are doing over $100 billion in terms of transaction value in the market. But you know, all of us put together have not even scratched the surface, because there is still a lot of potential, there are still a lot of people that are not even in the system and this is what the CBN is trying to do, to see how we can get as many people as possible.

We were sworn in on August 28, 2015. Because of the paucity of funds, we have not been authorized to carry out any new project. What we are doing now is completing ongoing projects and staff management. We have already completed and commissioned some inherited projects. We have commissioned a concrete jetty at Salvation City, we commissioned a palace at Otu Jeremi and an area office of the Commission at Orerokpe, and there are other projects lining up for commissioning.

The programme is progressing and we believe we have gone far and all things being equal we will get to a successful conclusion. Already, Boroh has said in an interview with the Vanguard newspaper that 5,000 beneficiaries will be exited from the programme at the end of this month followed by another batch in December next year. Does this indicate that the government is actually committed to the execution of the programme?