Yemie Adeoye
22 September 2013, Sweetcrude, Auja – The Petroleum Equalisation Fund (Management) Board, PEFMB, has been honoured by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, for “effective deployment of end-to-end electronic payment platform for effective and efficient service delivery”.
PEF is among five public and private organisations honoured by the CBN, including Bemil Nigeria Limited, Guinness Nigeria Plc, Ministry of local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Kano State, and the Kano State Universal Basic Education Board.
Executive Secretary of the PEF Board, Mrs Adefunke Sharon Kasali led the PEFMB team in Abuja to receive the award meant to recognise the organisation for its ‘‘committed and effective usage of end-to-end e-payment’’ in its operations.
The CBN instituted the award to recognise public and private sector organisations that have demonstrated significant adoption of electronic payments in line with the apex bank’s initiative on end-to-end e-payment of salaries, pension, tax and suppliers.
According to the CBN, the end-to-end initiative refers to the seamless electronic processing and payment of all forms of salaries, pensions, suppliers and taxes with the electronic delivery of associated schedules alongside payment transactions on CBN approved electronic platforms.
Such system includes the ability of a payer to independently monitor and obtain electronic feedback on the status of any payment, at any time without depending on any third party manual or semi-manual means.
The Petroleum Equalisation Fund (Management) Board is the first organisation to introduce the electronic payment system in the public service. This eliminated all inefficiencies in the payment process and engendered faster settlement of marketers’ claims. The e-payment has been adopted by all agencies after the Board was reviewed as a case study.
Also, PEFMB runs a complete paperless system covering all payments and processes, including processing and payment of marketers claims auditing, salaries, pensions and third party payments.
In January, the Board launched “Project Aquila”, an in-house developed electronic solution meant to check leakages, enthrone transparency and drive processes while transforming the Board’s operations for a more efficient and effective service delivery to all stakeholders. Project Aquila enabled automated data capture, faster processing and payment of claims, with an online real-time information management system.
