The Federal
Government and its agencies saved at least N56.4 billion from overdrafts in the
last one year through the application of Treasury Single Account (TSA).
The
Accountant General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris, who provided the figure,
explained that before the implementation of the TSA, the Federal Government was
incurring on a monthly basis a minimum of N4.7 billion from overdraft charges
by banks when the various Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) over draw
their balances held in the different bank accounts.
Idris made
the disclosure yesterday while reviewing the public financial management reforms
with particular reference to the TSA implementation and its benefits to
government organized for stakeholders in Abuja.
His words:
“TSA has enabled us to make tremendous gains to the Federal Government and to
the Nigerian economy. We have successfully eliminated multiple banking
arrangements resulting in 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. It has also
led to the blocking of leakages and abuse, which characterised the public
financial management before the implementation of the TSA.
“TSA has
taken us out of the era of indiscriminate borrowings by MDAs and saved
government the charges associated with those borrowings which hitherto amounted
to N4.7b monthly.’’
Idris
explained that the withdrawal of the fund from banks had made it difficult to
impose charges on Federal Government funds as the government now maintains a
single account for all its agencies with the Central Bank of Nigeria.
The AGF
stated 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.
“I can
therefore confidently assert that TSA has been beneficial to all stakeholders
and the country as a whole,” he insisted, pointing out that the workshop is
part of efforts to increase the level of consciousness on why the Federal
Government deemed it necessary to carry out the public finance management
reforms.
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