Technology unveiled by ICPC to detect fraud in the school feeding scheme
The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has proposed three demo hacking methods as a technological response to corruption in public school food programs.
Out of the seven innovative ideas given during the commission’s Illicit Financial Flows Hackathon, the hacking solutions were picked.
The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and the Ford Foundation, West Africa, collaborated to organize the hackathon on Friday in Abuja.
At the unveiling, ICPC chair Professor Bolaji Owasanoye stated that the use of technology is essential to the success of the campaign against corruption and illicit financial flows (IFFs).
“We all listened to the solutions provided by these young innovators. The demo hacking solutions will be interrogated further, fine-tuned and a demo will be developed and followed by a test run,” Mr Owasanoye said.
“Appropriate technology deployment will give law enforcement agencies, administrators and regulators of the process adequate leverage to know what school feeding funds were being used for.”
The Ford Foundation, NITDA, and anti-corruption agency, according to Mr. Owasanoye, will continue to work on the young inventors’ demo hacking solutions.
The government’s goals for its digital transformation plan would be more likely to be realized, according to remarks made by Kashifu Inuwa, director general of NITDA.
Dr. Chichi Aniagolu, Regional Director of the Ford Foundation for West Africa, stated that they were enthusiastic about the hackathon idea due to the significance of it for the national effort to combat corruption.
The project would help the battle against corruption, she said, and she praised the ICPC for starting it.
The young innovators were given the assignment to use new technology to leverage clearly defined ideas and prototype solutions to checkmate IFFs.
The winners, E-procure, Expose Solution, and IFFMER, each won a cash reward of N1.5 million, N1 million, and N500,000.
An Interview session with Israel Tijani of E-procure described how the platform was created using block chain technology to decentralize the procurement procedures in MDAs.
We are all aware that IFFs occurred when the government was executing contracts during the procurement phase.
However, this is set to change thanks to the E-procure platform because the government will be able to incorporate all stakeholders from contracting to procurement.
He asserted that it would streamline the procedures for engaging contractors in procurement.
He thanked ICPC and NITDA for reaching out to local innovators to give answers to problems plaguing the School Feeding Programme.
“I am impressed that the ICPC and NITDA are focusing on domestic inventors like me rather than sending this search for innovators to developed nations,
He continued, “We have the capacity in the nation to take advantage of the rising technology and create the Nigeria of our dreams.”
The federal government’s domestic school feeding program is managed by Sadiya Umar-ministry Farouq’s of humanitarian affairs.
According to the government, it costs N999 million per day to feed the 10 million students who are enrolled in the program.
