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The Federal Government on Tuesday said it has closed down over 20,000 accounts belonging to Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs domiciled with the various Deposit Money Banks, DMBs and saved over N5.4tn in the Treasury Single Account, TSA.
TheNewsGuru.com recalls that TSA commenced in September 2015.
The Accountant General of the Federation, Ali Ahmed Idris, gave the figures on Tuesday in Abuja, while speaking at the opening session of a two day retreat on TSA.
The event which was attended by Acting President Yemi Osinbajo, the Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr Babachir Lawal among other top government officials had as its theme, “One year anniversary of Treasury Single Account: Benefits, challenges and way forward.”
TheNewsGuru.com reports that the TSA is a platform used by the government to unify all its accounts by ensuring that all monies belonging to it are kept with the Central Bank of Nigeria.
The initiative which took off fully in September 2015 had been complied with by over 900 agencies of government.
Speaking on advantages of the TSA, the Accountant-General 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 September 2015.
Idris also said the TSA had assisted the government to overcome the burden of indiscriminate borrowings by MDAs thus saving government a lot of bank charges associated with these borrowings.
The Account-General noted that prior to the full commencement of the TSA, the government was incurring about N4.7bn monthly on bank charges, adding that this has been eliminated through the TSA initiative.
In his words: “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,” Idris said.