The Chief Operating Officer, Convexity, Adedeji Owonibi, disclosed this after a meeting with representatives of the French Embassy on Tuesday in Abuja.
Speaking to journalists, Adedeji stated that the app code-named CHATS allows for end-to-end visibility of funds and aids distribution to the donors, the implementing bodies, and the beneficiaries in an efficient manner.
According to him, the solution will resolve the issue of palliative diversion by tracking aid delivery from the donor or government to the NGO, agents and stipulated beneficiaries.
He noted that the digital solution involving blockchain technology has been developed by the company to digitise the process, fund teachers’ salaries, food items and other donations, as a way to address the decline in humanitarian funding and ensure funds get directly to the beneficiaries.
He said, “The app is to bring transparency and solutions to the ecosystem. We look at local problems and answer those problems using local solutions.
“For example, one of the latest solutions we built was around palliative distribution. So we know there is a transparency issue and we built a solution that actually gives end-to-end visibility to both the donors, the implementing bodies, and the beneficiaries in a small suite.
“For us, aid distribution transparency is key, and apart from that transparency is to give confidence to both local and international donors.
“So there is a UK publication that was quoted to have said that Nigeria is so corrupt and it is better to burn money for donations. Still, we spoke to the publication by building a solution that will engender transparency for donors to be able to see where their monies are going.”
He further urged the government to consider using the method to regain public trust in the various social net programmes currently implemented by the current administration.
“The next thing is to encourage the government to use this solution to bind citizens’ trust as the bulk of the project is going through social safety nets, and we believe with a solution like this, the government can become transparent and donors will be able to trace the impact of their monies, knowing the money was used for the right purposes.
“A success story we recorded recently was with the Red Cross when we stopped the diversion of drugs. The practice before was to go to the Internally Displaced Persons camps with them but by the next day, it would be found at the pharmacy and chemist.
“So our solution in working with the Red Cross was to identify the beneficiaries and know persons who benefit from the malaria vaccines and the drugs. We onboarded them and with a QR code, they could visit the chemist, scan and then get their drugs and the chemist gets his money from the app directly. In that case, nobody is hoarding anything and no one will get anything if they are not treated,” he stated.
The PUNCH reports there have been calls for a transparent method of disbursing relief items in the country.
Recently, a senior special assistant to the Kano state governor, Tasiu Al’amin-Roba, was arrested for alleged diversion of the state’s palliatives meant to be distributed to the poor and needy.
