Ilorin — Kwara State Government has joined other states of the federation in the implementation of the e-payment service to effect the payment of salaries, allowance and other financial obligations to over 23,000 workers in the state civil service in order to bring efficient and effective service delivery.

The state commissioner for Finance and Economic Development, Alhaji Abdulfatai Ahmed, said in Ilorin, while receiving electronic equipment like laptops, desktops and modem for internet facilities to be used from the approved bank, Intercontinental Bank Plc, for the implementation of the e-payment service to the workers of the state.

According to him, "the usage of the e-payment service by the state government is in line with the global trends in the financial sector in order to bring effective service delivery to the people that may have any financial deals with the state government."

He said the use of manual service in the effect of payment of all forms to the workers have remained cumbersome and outdated and therefore there is need to move with the globally accepted form of payment so as to move the state forward.

Ahmed said before now, the state government had embarked on the reforms of civil service with the intent of ensuring that the quality -driven workforce that would work in line with the goals of the government are put on ground.

He said the kind of civil service that the present government met on ground in year 2003 was an inverted pyramid with the large bogus workforce that needs urgent reforms so as to ensure quality delivery of service to the government.

The commissioner noted that, it was after this achievement that the state government decided to fashion out the way out of the process of effect the usage of e-payment in order to bring more oriented service to the people of the state.

He said there were many banks that compete with for the choice of the implementation of the e-payment in the state before the Intercontinental bank was picked by the government.

He said this was due to their efficient and effective service delivery in the demonstration of equipments that would be used for the implementation of the e-payment for the teeming workers of the state.

Ahmed noted that, by the time this use of e-payment start from this month (April), all categories of workers would be receiving their monthly salaries through the ban and this would go along way of fishing out ghost workers in the state.

He therefore advised the approved bank, Intercontinental Bank to brace up for the challenge and ensure proper implementation of the project for the benefit of workers in the state.

Earlier, the Regional Manager of Intercontinental Bank Plc, Mr. Tope Daramola thanked the state government for giving the bank the opportunity to partner with them in the usage of e-payment for the payment of salaries of workers in the state.

He said the bank would continue to be up and doing in order to ensure service delivery of the implementation of e-payment to all categories of workers in the state. .