Nigeria Records Over N7 Trillion In Treasury Single Account (TSA)

The President Muhammadu Buhari led government has
recorded over N7 trillion in the Treasury Single Account
(TSA) as of March ending 2017.
ThisDay reports that the Accountant General of the
Federation (AGF), Mr. Ahmed Idris, made this known in an
interview with the Economic Confidential in Abuja.
Idris further said the amount represents monies belonging
to different ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs)
put in a portal in such a way that government can view the
entire balance as one.
“When we say we have over N5 trillion in TSA, it does
not mean free funds for spending. These monies
belong to various ministries, departments and agencies
put in a portal in such a way that you can view the
entire balance as one.
“The movement is now over N7 trillion. But as I
explained earlier, these are not free monies. People
should not be thinking of why is government borrowing
to fund budget. These are budgeted monies for MDAs
for projects and developments,” he said.
The AGF further disclosed that the Nigerian government,
through the implementation of the TSA, has saved
additional N4 billion monthly which could have been held by
banks.
His words: “But let me also make a strong and
important point. If not because TSA is in place and now
that the recession is here, only God knows what would
have happened. A monthly drain of over N4 billion and
yet no revenue coming in and leakages continued. It
could have been a disaster. It was government’s
foresightedness and focus even as TSA was in place
before the recession. And that is why we are floating
and not sinking, and we will not sink, God willing.
“For instance, why would one university have over 120
bank accounts, and some of them even hidden and
missing and carrying huge balances. We also
discovered that there are costs associated with keeping
these multiple bank accounts. Every month the
government incurs over N4 billion in maintaining these
accounts! Yet government is borrowing its own money.
And to stop government from borrowing its money and
for the fact that there was no commensurate returns
on such monies, it was double tragedy! This is like a
sword with two sides that can cut with any of the
sides. Sanity was brought with the introduction of TSA.”
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