14/2/2017/The Will
The Federal Government says over 20,000 accounts kept with deposit money banks by Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs, have been closed since the commencement of the Treasury Single Account, TSA, with a total of N5.24trn moved into the Account.
The Accountant-General of the Federation, Mr. Ali Ahmed Idris, disclosed this on Tuesday in Abuja, while speaking at the opening session of a two-day retreat on TSA, with the theme: “One year anniversary of Treasury Single Account: Benefits, challenges and way forward”.
The event was attended by the Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, the Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr Babachir Lawal among other top government functionaries.
The TSA is a platform which was used by the federal government to unify all of its accounts by ensuring that all monies belonging to the government are kept with the account domiciled in the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN.
The initiative which took off in September 2015 had been complied with by over 900 agencies of government. But since the full implementation of the TSA, there have been loss of jobs in commercial banks owing to decline in deposits.
But the Accountant-General, while making a presentation at the event, insisted that the implementation of the TSA is one of the success stories in the management of public finances.
He explained that through the policy, the government has been able to block leakages and abuse which had characterised the public sector before its commencement in October 2015.
Aside blocking leakages, Idris said the TSA initiative has assisted the government to overcome the burden of indiscriminate borrowings by MDAs thus saving government a lot of bank charges associated with these borrowings.
He pointed out that prior to the full take-off of the TSA, the government was incurring about N4.7bn monthly on bank charges, adding that this has been eliminated through the TSA initiative.
“The TSA journey started way back in April 2012. That journey could not see the light of the day as no significant gains were recorded largely due to the lack of political will.
“However, the issuance of TSA circular in August, 2015, coupled with the political will and enforcement, enabled us to achieve considerable progress on the TSA implementation.
“As at the 10th of February,2017, the total inflow of funds through the mop-up and direct debits by the Central Bank of Nigeria amounted to N5.24trn.
“We have successfully eliminated multiple banking arrangements, resulting into consolidation of over 20,000 bank accounts, which were spread over Deposit Money Banks across the country.
“This has further brought about transparency and effective tracking of government revenues,” the Accountant-General said.
