The Director General of the Bureau of Public Service Reforms (BPSR), Dasuki Arabi, has declared that all federal ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) have completely phased out manual payment processes, insisting that government transactions are now fully digitised.
Arabi made the assertion on Monday while addressing journalists during a New Year conversation on the bureau’s reform scorecard in Abuja.
“As I’m talking to you today, no Nigerian federal public service agency or ministry uses pen, paper, or biro to make payments for services, for contracts by any citizen, by any company. So that has been digitalised 100 per cent,” he said.
He attributed the shift away from cash and manual payments to public financial management reforms, noting that digitisation has improved transparency and strengthened control over public funds.
According to him, the reforms now allow citizens and oversight institutions to track how much money is released, how it is utilised, and who the beneficiaries are.
Arabi explained that the BPSR, established in 2004, was created to initiate, drive, implement and monitor public service reforms across government institutions. He added that while other agencies may initiate reforms, they are required to report to the bureau for monitoring and evaluation.
He said the bureau’s work is guided by the National Strategy on Public Service Reforms, which he described as the central framework coordinating reforms from 2004 to date.
Part of the bureau’s mandate, he said, has been to strengthen government institutions by setting benchmarks and standards for MDAs, particularly in improving online presence and citizen engagement.
Arabi disclosed that the bureau developed a scorecard to assess and rank MDA websites, working with other agencies to harmonise the basic structure of government websites while allowing institutions to retain their unique identities.
He said MDAs are required to maintain functional websites, telephone lines and interactive portals that enable citizens to engage government, request information and receive feedback.
“Every MDA must have an interactive portal for freedom of information on their website, so that citizens can ask questions, can interact, and can get feedback immediately,” he said.
Arabi added that the bureau also collaborated with anti-corruption agencies and civil society organisations to develop a Transparency and Integrity Index, which assesses MDA performance, including the publication of procurement and recruitment information.
He stressed that citizens have a right to access such information, and that procurement details should be publicly available online.
Linking the reforms to the Treasury Single Account (TSA), Arabi described it as a BPSR-initiated reform that provides government with a real-time view of inflows into the national treasury and enables tracking of beneficiaries after fund allocations are made.
On payroll reforms, he said the Integrated Personnel and Payroll System (IPPIS) had helped eliminate ghost workers and strengthen personnel management, placing overall compliance at “almost 99.9 per cent.”
He also revealed that the bureau’s website scorecard programme had expanded from 20 MDAs at inception to nearly 500 MDAs.
“When we started, more than 80 per cent of our MDAs had no websites or inactive portals. Today, 90 per cent have functional websites,” he said, while admitting that some still fall below expected standards.
Arabi noted increased citizen participation in budgeting and planning processes, saying civil society groups now play a role in budget development and monitoring.
He announced plans to host a national citizens’ experience conference in Abuja around June 2026 to further strengthen engagement between citizens and government service providers.
While commending the progress made, Arabi said reform efforts remain ongoing, stressing that the public service must continue to adapt to challenges such as COVID-19 and emerging technologies.
He disclosed that Nigeria now has an e-government master plan and policies guiding the adoption of artificial intelligence and blockchain technology, with some institutions already deploying AI in service delivery.
However, he identified limited buy-in from state governments as a major challenge, noting that only four states Lagos, Ogun, Gombe and Kaduna have established state-level public service reform bureaus.
“One of the challenges we are facing is the refusal of state governors to key into the directives of the President for all of them to establish their own bureaus of public service reforms,” he said.
Arabi added that many states have nonetheless adopted aspects of public financial management reforms, including payroll digitisation and procurement agencies.
He also disclosed that the bureau plans to launch a central repository of reforms on its website before the end of June 2026, while appealing for improved funding to enhance the bureau’s performance.
