The Ministry of Finance, Budget, and National Planning, and other government agencies have budgeted N11bn on computer software in the 2023 budget which was recently signed by President Muhammadu Buhari.
The Ministry of Finance, Budget, and National Planning, will spend the largest amount on software in 2023 as it budgeted N9 billion for the asset.
This was followed by the Nigerian Meteorological Agency, which is to spend N920 million on software acquisition this year.
According to the signed budget, the State House under the Presidency is to acquire computer software with the sum of N237.2 million, while the Office of the Vice President is to buy software worth N96.6 million.
The Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF) is to spend N239 million on the item this year.
Further analysis of the budget document showed that the anti-graft agency, Economic and Financial Commission (EFCC) is to spend N200 million on software, while the Ministry of Works and Housing budgeted N174.9 million for the item.
The Ministry of Education plans to acquire software valued at N169 million. In the same vein, the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) budgeted N159.6 million for the non-tangible asset.
The Ministry of Defence is allocated N150 million to spend on the acquisition of software this year as its Information and Culture counterpart budgeted N93.5 million.
The Ministry of Transport is to spend N40 million on the asset, while the Communication and Digital Economy Ministry budgeted N18 million.
Meanwhile, the annual ritual of budgeting billions of naira for software upgrades continues amidst serious concerns by Nigeria’s ICT stakeholders that this aspect of the budget by MDAs constitutes a major channel of siphoning public funds.
An IT expert, Mr Adewale Adoye said the country’s economy could benefit from the annual budget for software by the government if half of the money is spent on local software.
“One major problem with the annual budget for software by the MDAs is that the money is not being pumped into the economy. Most of the agencies still prefer to import software even in cases where there are locally developed ones that could do the same thing. So, most of the funds that could have been used to encourage local developers and grow the country’s software industry are going into other countries as we continue to import software,” he said.
