Olawale Rotimi At Mobile West Africa 2016

Good evening,
I wish to share the summary of my presentation with you at the Mobile West Africa 2016.

#MWA2016 At the Mobile West Africa 2016, I evaluated mobile opportunities with government. In doing this, I defined the problems Nigerian government is facing and how technology can be used to resolve such problems. Corruption, lack of accountability and transparency are problems confronting Nigerian government.

The government has shown willingness to cut cost, block leakages and enhance transparency, and one of the easiest way to achieve this is to use technological applications to address these issues.

For example, assessing taxation in Nigeria, who is paying tax? Who is not paying? And how do we differentiate those paying from those who are not paying? There are many taxable businesses in Nigeria that do not pay tax, and the government is unable to track this. There's a need to have a database of taxable businesses, a platform for tax payers to generate tax clearance and separate tax defaulters. This will help the government to know the amount generated from tax, and be accountable.

Similarly, Nigeria has 23 Federal and state teaching hospitals and 22 Federal Medical Centers, none of this uses digital registration of patients. Hospital cards and files are printed in millions for patients across the nation, this makes it complex and difficult for patients to book appointments with doctors, however, introducing digital registration to Government hospitals will cut cost drastically and ensure transparency.

Government offices have to stop stocking files and go digital, in February 2014, mysterious fire guts Ogun state finance office amidst allegations of financial misappropriation. In September 2013, fire also guts Niger state Secretariat affecting the office of the director of Final Account at the Ministry of Finance. In October 2012, Burglars raided Kwara state Ministry of Finance carting away some documents.

If the government had digitized these documents in the finance ministries above, recovering them will be easy. In my conclusion, I called on the local mobile industry in Nigeria to create innovative solutions for the government to implement in cutting cost, blocking of leakages, enhancing transparency and accountability and fighting corruption. WE NEED TO MAKE IT OUR RESPONSIBILITY TO SOLVE AT LEAST 'ONE' PROBLEM AS PATRIOTIC CITIZENS.

Email: [email protected]
Phone: +2348105508224
Kind Regards,
Olawale Rotimi,
B.A, M.A Ilorin, DELF Paris.
Writer/ Journalist/ Researcher
Twitter: @RotimiLawale
+2348105508224
"You have to justify the space you occupy on earth by making an impact"








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Articles by Rotimi Olawale