By Olalekan Awojodu
Abuja
The National Judicial Council (NJC) Abuja has unveiled the online real time verification platform.
The new initiative is for retired Federal Judicial and some non judicial officers on its payroll, as well as the online enrollment for retiring Federal judiciary staff.
Giving an address at official take-off, the project, Executive Secretary, National Judicial Council, Ahmed Gambo Saleh said the launch was a testimony to the fact that his dream for information technology driven judiciary “is surely becoming a reality”.
Represented at the event by Soji Oye Director, Information NJC, Saleh disclosed that the pension department of the NJC is not left out in his initiative as most of the processes and operations have been automated.
The NJC boss said the apex judicial body had in the past few years championed a complete technological transformation of the court systems and processes placing much more premium on audio-visual court sittings and e-filing of processes.
Earlier, the Director, Pensions, NJC, Mrs Georginia Obingene said the initiative was aimed at improving the operational efficiency of the pensions department of of the council.
“The National Judicial Council is the first amongst all other key players in the administration of pension in Nigeria to implement a robust e-platform of this nature which is aimed at reducing to the barest minimum, the challenges and difficulties faced by retirees during the traditional pension verification exercise” Obingene said.
She hinted that the NJC conducts annual verification exercise and for these categories of officers who are spread across all the states of the federation including FCT, so as to revalidate their biometric data and ensure integrity and and reliability of the pension records.
“However, due to the compelling realities of the challenges of COVID-19 in the year 2020, the Pension Department of the National Judicial Council was unable to conduct the annual Verification Exercise for Retired Federal Judicial and some non-Judicial Officers already in its Pension Payroll and the yearly Enrolment Exercise for the capturing of the retiring F ederal Judiciary Staff under the Contributory Pension Scheme” Obingene said.
With the challenge, the Director said the NJC was faced with no option than to leverage on Information Technology to accomplish these tasks and to also key-in to the recent automation initiatives of the NJC.
“It is for this very reason we are gathered here today to witness the launching of this Project, and to mark the official take-off of the online real time Verification Platform for Retired Federal Judicial and some non Judicial Officers on our Payroll, and the Online Enrolment for Retiring Federal Judiciary Staff” she said.
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