By Ejike Abana (ABS Government House Correspondent):
Government of Anambra has placed a ban on collection of revenues by Ministries, Departments and Agencies.
According to the Commissioner for Information, Sir Paul Nwosu who stated this in a post-ANSEC release, henceforth, it is the sole responsibility of Anambra State Internal Revenue Service to collect revenues as the revenue collection process has been digitized to reduce leakages.
Commissioner Nwosu continued that plans are underway to centralize the data of all the MDAs with the State’s Information Communication Technology Agency, to avoid a situation where ICT vendors who worked for different MDAs in the past, hold government to ransom at the expiration of their contract by holding on to valuable data.
Sir Nwosu added that Anambra State ICTA is now charged with the responsibility to holistically consolidate and manage the data of all the MDAs in Anambra State, stressing that ANSEC discussed and approved the need for a baseline data pool.
He maintained that to achieve this, each ministry should own and be able to provide baseline data on itself and MDAs under it, as government decisions will be evidence-based and data driven henceforth.
The Commissioner stated that also at the ANSEC meeting, an elaborate presentation was made by the Commissioner for Commerce and Industry, Dr Obinna Ngonadi on enhancing the Igbo Apprenticeship Scheme or “Igba Boi”, a scheme that is peculiar to Ndi Igbo and has over the years been a unique venture capital raising model studied in business school around the world, which he said is unfortunately under threat.
He pointed out that government is critically looking at all manner of variable that will sustain and reinvigorate the unique business model, consequent upon which it set up an ANSEC Committee to come up with ways to enhance the apprenticeship scheme so that an enduring policy can be formulated on “Igba Boi”.
Commissioner Nwosu concluded that ANSEC that the case of a woman of 75 years who was viciously raped to the point of coma in Awkuzu, was also discussed at ANSEC.
The Commissioner said that the man who committed the crime revealed that his native doctor told him that raping such an old woman will make him rich and stressed that he was arrested, emphasizing that the native doctor will be picked up later and his shrine destroyed.
