NCDMB: No more middlemen in our local content processes - ITREALMS

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The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) announced on Monday that it had eliminated middlemen from the oil and gas industry value chain and contributed to shortening the oil industry contracting cycle to six months, courtesy of the three Presidential Directives on Local Content operations issued by President Bola Tinubu in March 2024.

The Executive Secretary of NCDMB, Engr. Felix Omatsola Ogbe stated this in Lagos while speaking at a breakfast meeting with some media executives.

Ademiluyi urges global embrace for optimal employment processes - ITREALMS

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The Managing Director of HumanManager Limited (HML), a leading HR and Payroll solutions firm and a subsidiary of SystemSpecs Holdings Limited (SHL), Adekunbi Ademiluyi, has called for global embrace for optimisation of employment processes, reports ITREALMS.

Delivering a keynote at the 2023 Digital PayExpo conference held recently in Lagos, on the theme ‘The Future is Contactless’, she told stakeholders in the financial sector and others to explore the potential of contactless payments technology in fostering the adoption of cashless transactions in Africa.

Google processes over 40,000 search queries per second

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Investigation has revealed that Google, the most acceptable search engine on the Internet, now processes over 40,000 search queries per second, reports ITRealms.

According to the Google’s Year in Search across the globe for the year 2017, Google processes more than 40,000 search queries every second.

This, Google disclosed translates to over a billion searches per day and 1.2 trillion searches per year worldwide.

Google also noted that the results of its 2017 Year in Search, offer unique perspective on the year's major moments and top trends based on searches conducted in Nigeria.

ITRealms reports that in addition to showcasing what people, places, and things were trending around the globe this year, the 2017 Year in Search list also offers insights into what the top trending news moment for Nigerians was in the last 12 months, as well as the new music and movies that got their attention.

“It's no secret that people turn to Google for answers to questions they are embarrassed to ask their friends,” part of the analytics showed.

ITRealms further reports that Google search trends data is available and to watch the annual video, the company advised the customers to visit the above video link.

Nonye Dom/GEE

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Nigerian companies can uniquely leverage business processes

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There’s a golden opportunity for Nigerian companies – one that turns their delay in investing in outsourcing and shared services into a unique strength. By plugging directly into the delivery machine of an experienced business process services provider, they can sidestep many of the challenges endured by earlier adopters. This enables businesses to leapfrog competitors and drive business value – rather than being a back-office function.

The world of business process outsourcing (BPO), broadly defined, has undergone multiple incarnations. Pure facilities management preceded data and infrastructure outsourcing; thereafter came application support. We’ve now moved into a new era, however – that of business process support (BPS) – allowing an external partner to manage everything from finance, to HR, sales support, credit and collections, as well as digital marketing.

Local companies have been reluctant to rely on third-party delivery of key services – in many cases due to fears around loss of control, where there is a legacy thinking of ownership equalling control. That said, Nigeria has not been left untouched by traditional BPO – the application and IT areas have matured more rapidly over the past five years, nonetheless only one conglomerate has taken a bold BPO step in Nigeria. Going forward, however, as we begin to see major moves towards drivers such as As-a-Service, increased automation and artificial intelligence, for forward-thinking Nigerian companies, leapfrogging competitors is going to be all about taking advantage of those next-generation capabilities today.

A fundamental shift from BPO to BPS

Once, outsourcing meant taking as many people as possible and setting them up in a delivery centre. That is changing. A combination of the on-tap liquid workforce, robotics, access to industry expertise, cloud technology and artificial intelligence – that’s where the sphere is headed. Fixed costs are declining steeply; you now buy services as required. Digital is remaking outsourcing – ‘outsourcing’ as a term in fact is no longer accurate. It’s all about business process services and the way BPS enables more effective, intelligent decision making.

There are more exciting changes. Whereas cost reduction once lay at the core, the key driver is now business outcomes – selling more products, improving account usage and increasing revenue. Another relates to a mindset shift. A service such as finance or procurement – when managed by an external partner – is now no longer simply a back-office process. Analytics function becomes capable of shaping how a business thinks about itself. Utilizing an expert service provider means that those in both middle and upper management are free to think more strategically.

Ololade Raji went further, saying, “given the benefits, it’s hard to understand what’s been preventing companies in Nigeria from taking the plunge, although lingering fears around the ownership-control continuum may continue to play a key role. At first blush, it appears to some that loss of ownership of a function means loss of control over it. In fact, the converse is often true – particularly in the sense that a more arm’s-length relationship often results in better decision making. Interestingly, utilizing an expert provider like Accenture can give you greater control through deep expertise and a commercial arrangement giving committed performance and business outcomes”.

Crucially, having largely side-stepped the shared services model, Nigerian companies are now better positioned to take a ‘long-jump’ approach to BPS: moving straight from in-housed disparate functions to plugging directly into an expert partner’s value delivery machine. Many businesses in developed economies will, by contrast, have undergone a longer, ‘triple-jump’ process, having worked on a shared services basis in between, and endured the associated restructuring and upheaval.

The value of going direct

Ololade further stressed that, “companies in Nigeria will no doubt begin to increasingly realise the value and gains business process services enable – fixed costs decline as services are bought as needed; migration into cloud platforms powers both scalability and ease of access. The liquid workforce means high skill at reduced, flexible cost. Moreover, there are the benefits made possible not only by automation, but increasingly, by cognitive computing and artificial intelligence. The list goes on.”

As the drive around efficiency, flexibility and reactivity reshape the global business landscape, successful companies will need to realise operational efficiencies and access the strategic insights made possible by expert partners. It just so happens that Nigerian companies may be uniquely well positioned to do so.

*Contributed by Ololade Raji, Accenture FMCG, Operations in Nigeria

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Bureau gives NCC platinum rating in institutional work processes

ITRealms:

The Bureau of Public Service Reforms (BPSR) has rated the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) high in institutional work processes with a platinum category, reports ITRealms.

As said by the Director, Public Affairs, NCC, Tony Ojobo in a press statement made available to ITRealms, very strong business organizational structure, policies and practices that facilitate effective and efficient service delivery were some of the high points, the Bureau of Public Service Reforms (BPSR) considered before naming the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) tops in institutional work processes in the country.

He quoted the Director General, BPSR, Dr. Joe Abah presented the report and plaque to the Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of the NCC, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, at the NCC Headquarters in Abuja, on Monday.

According to Dr. Abah, in arriving at this conclusion the BPSR boss also listed accountabilities and responsibilities for set Standardized Operating Procedure (SOP) manuals of the Commission’s 19 departments.

Accurate measurement of Responsibilities and Performance assigned to staff were the parameters for the evaluation of the Commission.

In terms of governance, he said, the Bureau said “NCC strategic objectives are prioritized for potential impact using standardized principles including the balanced score card”.

NCC’s understanding of stakeholders needs and contributions are quite robust.

The Bureau said NCC’s vision, strategy and impacts complement other sectors organizational direction, adding that “Staff can articulate what the Commission wants to achieve, its role and purpose; Strategy is considered by the management team regularly throughout the year because; NCC has a sense of where it is going and how it should get there.

The Bureau also rated NCC very high in procurement processes saying the Commission “has adequate systems, processes and experienced personnel responsible for executing its procurement activities in line with extant provisions of the Public Procurement Act”.

The Bureau also commended the establishment of NCC central store at Mbora, Abuja where all procurement records are archived electronically from loss.

The Bureau also listed in its report that “NCC demonstrates that formal performance management processes are clearly understood, constantly applied and seen by all staff to be a valuable activity, that individual performance targets are clearly assigned with the team, business unit and overall organizational performance targets”.

The report that was presented to Prof. Danbatta by Dr. Abah took 15 months to go through evaluation during which period the BPSR team had a meeting with the Human Capital Department (HCD) team of NCC. Based on the approval of the EVC, the evaluation of the work processes took place thereafter whereby top management, senior and junior management staff were nominated to assess the work processes of the Commission under nine main areas covering 117 questions supervised by officials of BPSR.

After the BPSR presentation, the NCC boss, Prof. Danbatta, said as someone from the academia, he is very conversant with empirical analysis and criticisms and welcomed the Bureau’s report.

These bring out the best of the situation.  He thanked the Director General for this rare show of professionalism by making the presentation himself. This conclusion by BPSR has further justified NCC’s position as a foremost regulator in Africa whose robust regulatory activities are based on international best practices.

On the grey areas of Quality of Service, Prof. Danbatta said that the Commission will leave no stone unturned to ensure that Quality of Service improves.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that define Quality of Service, have been put in place for Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) assessment.  The result of the assessment in the 1^st quarter of 2017 has shown improvement in Quality of Service.

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Nigeria aligns with AU, eases immigration processes

ITRealms:

In living up to its promise last year and obvious alignment with the African Union (AU) directive last year, the Federal Government has reviewed the visa processes for foreigners who wish to visit Nigeria for business and tourism purposes, with a view to removing bureaucratic bottlenecks and encouraging business travellers and tourists, so as to boost the economy, reports ITRealms.

In a statement issued in Lagos on Sunday, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said the measures were part of the action plan for the ease of doing business as well as efforts to boost tourism, within the overall context of the Administration's economic diversification agenda.

''The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has reviewed the requirements for Nigerian visas to make them more customer friendly, and details of this review are available on the NIS official website. Types of visas currently reviewed include Visa on Arrival (VoA) processes, Business Visas, Tourist Visas and Transit Visas,'' the Minister said.

Alhaji Mohammed explained that Business Visas are available for foreign travellers who wish to travel to Nigeria for meetings, conferences, seminars, contract negotiation, marketing, sales, purchase and distribution of Nigerian goods, trade fairs, job interviews, training of Nigerians, emergency/relief work, crew members, staff of NGOs, researchers and musical concerts.

He said Tourist Visas are also available to foreign travelers who wish to visit Nigeria for the purpose of tourism or to visit family and friends while Nigeria Visa on Arrival is a class of short visit visa issued at the port of entry, and it is available to frequently-travelled high-net-worth investors and intending visitors who may not be able to obtain visa at the Nigerian Missions/Embassies in their countries of residence due to the absence of a Nigerian mission in those countries or exigencies of urgent business travels.

SA to Hon Minister of Information and Culture, Segun Adeyemi,quoted the Minister as saying that other actions that have been taken by the NIS for the ease of doing business and facilitation of travelling for Nigerians and foreigners alike include the harmonization of multiplicity of Airport Arrival and Departure Form/Cards into a single form for all agencies of government to save foreign visitors from the current frustrating practice of filling 3 different forms or more and the decentralization of Immigration services to the State Commands.

''Re-issuance of passports for change of names due to marital reasons or lost cases have been decentralized to all State Commands and Foreign Missions to save passport holders from additional costs and inconvenience of travelling to the Service Headquarters in Abuja, while additional 28 offices have been opened for issuance of Residence Permits in Nigeria, bringing the issuance of Combined Expatriate Residence Permit And Aliens Cards (CERPAC) closer to the doorstep of employers of expatriates at all 36 states and FCT,'' he said.

Alhaji Mohammed said the measures by NIS fit perfectly into the 60-day national action plan for ease of doing business in Nigeria that was approved recently by the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC), as well as the Administration's efforts to boost international tourism.

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FIRS banks on ITAS to improve tax collection in Nigeria

ITRealms:

The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has explained the essence of automating its processes, just as the agency banks on Integrated Tax Administration System (ITAS), reports ITRealms.

Speaking in Lagos on Friday, Acting Executive Chairman, Federal Inland Revenue Service, Mr. Sunday S. Ogungbesan explained why they invested on the Integrated Tax Administration System (ITAS).

“ITAS automates core tax administration processes and enables online interface between FIRS and taxpayers,” he said.

He cited for instance the Value Added Tax (VAT) Collect system, saying FIRS has unveiled the automated system for tracking and remittance of Value Added Tax from key sectors.

“E-tax pay platform, online electronic system of tax payment, which enables online payment and monitoring in real-time,” he said, just as E-filing system, which allows electronic filing of tax returns and accompanying documentation has since been introduced.

FIRS, he said, would collaborate with Office of the Accountant General of the Federation to ensure source deduction and remittance of taxes from government contracts and of employees emoluments through GIFMIS and IPPIS.

“The automation of the statutory reporting process from banks to FIRS,” he said, is not left out.

In order to improve processes, he said, FIRS would engage with Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Office of the Accountant General of the Federation and other relevant agencies to improve collaboration

The imperativeness of organizational restructuring, he said, led to the promotion of professionalism and effective linkage between core tax and support functions. 

“This has included strengthening of audit functions nationwide through regionalization and deployment of core tax professionals to oversee and it functions strengthening of taxpayer service and enforcement functions to bring tax administration closer to taxpayers and also improve voluntary compliance

Stressing that ongoing collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Finance and Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission would be streamlined to tax incentives and eliminate misuse

FIRS boss further said that review of tax legislation and tax rulings along with issuance of regulations to provide clarity on interpretation and application of tax laws - Withholding Tax Regulations, Amendment of Schedule to Taxes and Levies based on approved list for collection Act.

+Remmy Nweke (ITRealms)
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