The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)

  • Why NIPOST must brace up

    Why NIPOST must brace up

    When the country observed the World Post day in Abuja that Mr Smart Tweador, Chief Executive of Smart Connects, a telecom company, expressed concerns about the operations of the Nigerian Postal Service ( NIPOST ).

    According to him the theme of the day — “Transform to remain an enabler of inclusiveness development and an essential component of the global economy’’ — is apt in addressing some of the challenges facing NIPOST.

    He said the coming on stream of cellular phones had tremendously affected the operations of the organisation since letter writing has reduced.

    “People make calls and send text messages instead of writing lengthy letters, so NIPOST has got to come up with innovative ways to market their products.

    “Besides that, you find out that the courier services are more efficient; aside from that transportation companies are now able to carry letters and those are fast means of getting your letters across.

    “All you need to do is to call the person on phone and say go to a certain place and collect a letter, so with all other avenues to get across a letter, you find that the fortunes of NIPOST has really been affected.

    “Therefore, the onus is now on government to compel its agencies and officials to use NIPOST to transmit official letters.

    “It should also make use of its Nipost Ems Speedpost services; and you will see that this will improve the staff performance,’’ he said.

    Tweador also said the only way to keep the organisation afloat was through patronage, advising the organisation to brace up to meet the current challenges in a competitive society.

    He observed that most government officials that paid private courier companies to carry government mails were not helping the post.

    But Mr Bisi Adegbuyi, Postmaster-General, NIPOST, insisted that the agency was leveraging on information communications technology tools to introduce innovative products in line with global trend.

    “There is so much to be gained from this transformation, you must satisfy your customers who are with the money. We are reinventing ourselves by leveraging on digitisation.

    “With all the strong political support we are getting from the Federal Government and the parliament, they have demonstrated their total commitment and their readiness to pass laws that will diversify the productive space of this country and ensure that the postal revolution is achieved.

    “As we stand to meet the United Nations Development Goals, we should not forget postal infrastructure as an enabler of inclusive development and a key platform for delivering public services.

    “So, NIPOST is introducing International Postal Service, Track and Trace System, Mobile Electronic Stamp, Address Verification System , Electronic Money Order and  other financial inclusive services.’’ Adegbuyi said.

    He said the Address Verification System was to build trust between organisations and individuals and an easy and quick way to identify and authenticate addresses.

    “It gives the security agencies unimaginable information to work with and help government plan better.

    “All these are to ensure that the post meets current demands of customers and to make the post viable with the collaboration of other government agencies such as Central Bank of Nigeria ( CBN ) and the private sector,’’ he said.

    He claimed that NIPOST generated N8. 84 billion in 2016 out of which N4.09 billion was from the sales of adhesive postage stamps, sold under the implementation of the stamping protocol.

    “But most government agencies are not using this tool and government is losing a lot of revenue and job opportunities,’’ he observed.

    Concerned by his comments, some stakeholders, therefore, called on the Federal Government to compel its agencies and ministries to utilise NIPOST facilities.

    According to them, the post has gone to sleep and is no longer in the league of speedy, efficient and effective service delivery.

    They insist that for the post to become an agency to be reckoned with once again, government agencies and institutions must be compelled by government to use its facilities.

    Similarly, Mrs Caroline Ojo, a civil servant, called on the organisation to look beyond posting of letters and use its spread in all local governments across the nation to utilise its services to improve its revenue generation.

    “NIPOST must be proactive and creative; it must make use of its facilities in the nooks and crannies of the country to beat competition.

    “Apart from this, it can use the vehicles at its disposal to bridge the gap between villages and cities in the transportation of farm produce.

    “There are many possibilities for the organisation, also linking up with small scale businesses and get their patronage, these are areas that the other courier companies will not go to,’’ Ojo said.

    Ojo, however, called for attitudinal change and work ethics by the staff of the organisation to move it forward and called on government to review the salary of staff to make them more committed to work.

    But Minister of Communications Adebayo Shittu said with the types of infrastructure and trained personnel of NIPOST, the agency could serve as a veritable organisation for development.

    According to him, with the vast offices nationwide including assets such as lands and vehicles, NIPOST is a game changer if all hands were put on deck.

    Shittu, nonetheless, solicited the National Assembly’s assistance in fast-tracking processes on a bill for an Act to repeal the Nigeria Postal Service Act to provide for the operations and development of postal services, the establishment of Nigeria Postal Commission and for related matters, 2017, presented to it.

    In response to this, Dr Chukwuemeka Ujam, Deputy Chairman, Communication, House of Representatives, said the National Assembly would grant a speedy passage of the NIPOST Reform Bill and the Stamp Duty Reform Bill.

    The world observes every October 9 as the post day but the date marks the anniversary of the Universal Postal Union, which started in 1874 in Switzerland.

    However, the World Post Day started in 1969 at the Universal Postal Union’s congress in Tokyo and it has since then become celebrations worldwide to highlight the importance of postal services.

    NAN

  • CBN Injects $195m into Forex market 

    CBN Injects $195m into Forex market 

    The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Monday, continued its intervention in the inter-bank foreign Exchange market with the injection of $195m.

    Figures released by the CBN show that it offered the total sum of $100million to the wholesale segment, while the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) segment received the sum of $50 million.

    The invisibles segment, comprising tuition fees, medical payments and Basic Travel Allowance (BTA), among others, received $45 million.

    Confirming the figures, the Bank’s Acting Director, Corporate Communications Department, Mr. Isaac Okorafor,said “the injection was in line with the CBN’s pledge of making the Forex market liquid.”

    Mr. Okorafor reiterated that “the CBN remained determined to achieve its objective of rates convergence, hence the consistent intervention in the foreign exchange market.

    He urged Deposit Money Banks to only honour requests from customers with genuine needs, noting that the Bank does not intend to falter in its pledge to ensure liquidity in the forex market.

    Meanwhile, the naira continued to maintain its stability in the FOREX market, exchanging at an average of N363/$1 in the BDC segment of the market on Monday, October 9, 2017.

  • FG to release proceeds of N100bn Sukuk bond to Ministry

    FG to release proceeds of N100bn Sukuk bond to Ministry

    The Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, has disclosed that proceeds of the N100 billion Islamic bond, Sukuk, will be released to the Ministry of Works on Thursday.

    Adeosun made this known when she appeared before the Joint Committee on Finance and Appropriation of the Senate on Tuesday in Abuja to brief it on level of implementation of the 2017 budget.

    She said that the Federal Government ( FG ) successfully completed the Sukuk bond last week and raised N100 billion, which would be released on Thursday.

    “The Sukuk funds are earmarked for roads and will be released on Thursday this week.

    “We have kept the capital spending going to ensure that efforts to improve the economy are continuous and seamless.

    ”There was no interruption in the activities of Ministries, Department and Agencies to ensure that they continued with their projects.

    ”The N100 billion Sovereign Sukuk, which debuted last month, has a tenor of seven years, and has been certified as ethically compliant by the Financial Regulation Advisory Council of experts of the Central Bank of Nigeria ( CBN ),” she said.

    The minister noted that of the N2.18 trillion 2017 budget for capital expenditure, N341billion had so far been released.

    She said that the cumulative releases on current expenditure so far was N1.5 trillion, adding that N129 billion had been released for statutory transfers and N38 billion for pensions.

    She added that N92 billion had been released for overhead cost while Service Wide Votes was N224 billion.

    The 2017 Budget of N7.44 trillion has Statutory Transfers provision of N434 billion, N1.8 trillion for Debt Servicing, N177.5 billion for Sinking Fund for Maturity Bonds and N2.99 trillion for Recurrent Non-Debt Expenditure.

    NAN

  • CBN denies overfunding Federal Government

    CBN denies overfunding Federal Government

    • warns that changing interest rate might reverse economic gains

    The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has denied claims that it is overfunding the federal government.

    Reacting to a report that a member of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) had raised alarm that the apex bank was overfunding the federal government, CBN governor Godwin Emefiele defended the Bank by stating categorically that “the CBN has not overfunded the federal government.”

    Addressing journalists at the end of the bi-monthly Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting in Abuja Tuesday, Emefiele stated that “the federal government, on its own decided that all its funds that are in banks in both local and foreign currency should be moved to the CBN into the Treasury Single Account (TSA) like we all know.”

    Putting the issue into perspective, the CBN governor explained that “if as the customer of a bank you have fixed deposit in an account and for some reasons you want some spontaneous financing to meet your obligation, your own commercial bank can be approached and asked to allow the customer overdraw his account temporarily, your bank will oblige you. This has nothing to do with the Central bank or any bank but the assurance I would like to give to you is that there is no truth in the initial story of overfunding because whatever is overdrawn is much less than what the federal government also has it CF account.”

    Emefiele stressed that “at a time when the world racked by shocks that has resulted in certain vulnerabilities in the global economy that most central banks whether they like it or not, do not have a choice but to come to the aid of their governments particularly when you consider what is size of the central bank balance sheet relative to the GDP.”

    In Nigeria, the size of the CBN balance sheet relative to the GDP, the governor said “is just about 23% but I will give you the data of other central banks. The People’s bank of China the size of its balance sheet relative to GDP is 49%, in the Euro zone it is 27%, the Swiss central bank is 95%, the bank of Taiwan is 98% the bank of Japan is 104% the Bank of England is 22% and the US Fed is 28%.”

    “So if that of CBN is 23% of balance sheet, I think it does not calls for cause for concern or worry for anybody to begin to come to a conclusion the way the personal statement of an MPC member is not understood.”

    At the end of the meeting, MPC voted to retain the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) or interest rate at 14.0 per cent; retain the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) at 22.5 per cent; retain the Liquidity Ratio at 30.0 per cent; and retain the Asymmetric corridor at +200 and -500 basis points around the MPR.

    On the argument to hold rates at 14% for so long, the Committee Emefiele said “believes that the effects of fiscal policy actions towards stimulating the economy have begun to manifest as evident in the exit of the economy from the fifteen-month recession.”

    He noted that “although still fragile, the fragility of the growth makes it imperative to allow more time to make appropriate complementary policy decisions to strengthen the recovery. Secondly, the Committee was of the view that economic activity would become clearer between now and the first quarter of 2018, when growth is expected to have sufficiently strengthened and gains in receding inflation, very obvious.”

    The most compelling argument for holding interest rate at 14% he maintained “was to achieve more clarity in the evolution of key macroeconomic indicators including budget implementation, economic recovery, exchange rate, inflation and employment generation.”

    When asked to explain what will warrant a change of interest rate, Emefiele stated that “monetary policy authorities in a year if they must change their stance will not do it for more than maybe once or twice so there is nothing wrong or extraordinary in the MPC holding position constant for a considerable length of time.”

    In retaining the MPR at 14% the CBN governor noted that “we started 15 months ago at a point where growth was decelerating, inflation had doubled from 9% to 18% in January 2016 to January 2017 we saw the risks in foreign exchange markets and the massive depreciation that happened in the foreign exchange market at a point the market was at about N525 to the dollar.”

    But by virtue of the fact that we decided and said that look we should hold position because at the point we decided to hold position we had taken some tight monetary policy stance we began to see that growth had started to improve all be it fragile at 0.55%, inflation is moderating, although slowly to where it is now from about 18.7% or so in January to 16.0% now, we’ve seen exchange rate appreciate from N525 in February to N360 in at this time, what that means is that certain correct decisions had been taken and that there is a need for us to see to have how far we will see to the positive effects of those decisions.”

    He assured Nigerians that the MPC “recognize that there is a need to deal with the issue of interest rate and we are very conscious of the need to bring down interest rates but we think we are not there yet because if we reverse the trend or if we do what most people expect, the truth is that it may reverse the gains we have so far achieved in exchange stability and moderation of inflation. That’s why we decided to wait and see how far we go in these areas.”

    Speaking on the Nigeria Autonomous Foreign Exchange (NAFEX) segments, Emefiele stated that the forex segment “has far exceeded our expectations and we are delighted that over $7 billion has come in in five months.”

    “It gratifies us that confidence level is building and all we have to do is work on areas where there are still a few grey issues that needed to be addressed and they would be addressed to ensure that there’s maximum confidence that will engender further inflow of funds into the market to support imports and the growth of the economy.”

    The CBN governor stated that “available data and forecast of key macroeconomic variables indicate a relatively positive outlook, predicated on existing policy initiatives including the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP). Other potential drivers of economic recovery are; the expected increase in government revenue arising from favourable crude oil prices, stable output, and general improvements in the non-oil sector, especially, agriculture, industry and construction.”

    The intervention by the CBN in the real sector he said “is expected to continue to yield positive results in terms of output and lower consumer prices.”

    The MPC, however, noted some downside risks to the overall short- to medium-term positive outlook for the economy. These include; flooding which displaced farming communities and political agitations. On the external front, the hawkish policy stance in the United States, rising geo-political tensions and sluggish output recovery in the Euro-area and Japan, could slow-down the momentum of global output growth, with significant spillovers to emerging markets and developing countries, including Nigeria.

  • AIB boss urge pilots, others to be professional in their duties

    AIB boss urge pilots, others to be professional in their duties

    Mr Akin Olateru, the Commissioner, Accident Investigation Bureau ( AIB ), has  emphasised the need  for members of the National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers ( NAAPE ) to discharge their duties professionally.

    The commissioner’s call is in a statement by Mr Tunji Oketunbi, the Head, Public Affairs, AIB, on Sunday in Lagos.

    Oketunbi stated that the commissioner made the call when a delegation of NAAPE, led by its President, Mr Abednego Galadima, paid a courtesy visit to Olateru at the AIB headquarters.

    Olateru said the Nigerian aviation industry would experience more growth and safe flight operations if aircraft engineers and pilots in various organisations displayed professionalism in carrying out  their responsibilities.

    He lauded NAAPE for the pragmatic approach  in dealing with managements of various organisations in the industry, noting that the attitude had brought stability to the sector and enjoined them to continue  in the same manner.

    The commissioner said “there is no organisation without workers and if there is no organisation, there will be no workers. Your association has demonstrated enough professionalism.

    “It is not about money. For some unions, it is for the highest bidders, but you have been consistent with the truth.

    “Without NAAPE, there is no aviation. NAAPE is the most important union in the industry. I am not, however, saying that other unions are not important but everything surrounds aircraft. If there is no aircraft, there is no aviation.

    “NAAPE comes first in the industry. So, I will want you to urge your members to be more professional in the discharge of their duties.”

    Commenting on the release of accident reports by the bureau, Olateru observed that none of its reports had been faulted by any individual or organisation in recent times.

    He attributed this to the new approach by the current management, which removed accident reports from the apron string of individuals to collective contributions.

    He explained that because of the quality of work done by investigators, no engine or aircraft manufacturer had faulted the reports of the agency on aircraft incident or accident.

    “The Minister of State for Aviation, Sen. Hadi Sirika, recently told me not to rush reports that could be faulted by anyone.

    “So, I took time to go through the process to show him that our reports can’t be faulted. Our reports are not done individually again.

    “We now have groups comprising experienced and inexperienced investigators. No one personalises reports again. And after the groups have finished their work with the draft reports, we send them to stakeholders for comments and observations.

    “On getting feed backs, we now do a general review, which involves virtually all the investigators, before it goes out for proof reading,”he said.

    Olateru noted that aviation industry anywhere in the world was technical and volatile, stressing that whatever developments that took place in other sectors also affect aviation industry.

    He pointed out  that the minister  was working with Central Bank of Nigeria ( CBN ) to ensure that interest rate on loans obtained by investors in the sector was not more than nine per cent, which would go a long way in improving standards in the sector.

    Olateru emphasised that it required expertise for an investor to run an airline business successfully and enjoined investors in the sub-sector to allow proven professionals to run the businesses.

    In his remarks, Galadima commended Olateru for bringing stability to AIB within a short period of time.

    He promised that the association would work with the management, especially in the area of accident prevention and would sensitise members on non-hazard and violation according to Annex 13 of the International Civil Aviation Organisation ( ICAO ).

    He added that “we want to see that the industry grows. We are here to see that aviation in Nigeria grows and gets a win-win for employees and employers.

    “We recognise that AIB has paucity of funds, but despite this, the bureau has been paying the licence fee to NAAPE members in the agency.

    “I will also use this opportunity to call for the release of promotion letters to our members in your organisation as the year is running out. Also, I seek proper placement as it affects our members. We will support you, but as friends, we will also tell you the truth.”

  • Mining sector generates N4.96bn in two years – RMAFC

    Mining sector generates N4.96bn in two years – RMAFC

    Mr Shettima Abba-Gana, Acting Chairman, Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission ( RMAFC ) says the mining sector was generating less than capacity due to activities of illegal mining.

    In an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria ( NAN ) on Thursday in Abuja, Abba-Gana said the sector generated only N14.9 billion between 2015 and 2016.

    Read also: Mining is long-term investment, PwC chief tells investors

    He said that the revenue accrual from the sector was not encouraging and “too low’’.

    “RMAFC believes that the revenue from the solid minerals sector is still below 20 per cent.

    “This is mainly due to the activities of illegal miners who constitutes more than 70 per cent of mining activities and do not pay tax.

    “While the price rates of the minerals in the international market keep rising, the rates of the minerals in Nigeria remained constant at lower rates.

    “Therefore, if all leakages are blocked, the sector can generate up to N500 billion,’’ he said.

    Abba-Gana also said the sector generated N16.2 billion from 2008 until date, adding that the total shared was N9.9 billion with a balance of N6.29 billion left.

    He noted that the observed variance/amount in the escrow account was N1.34 billion.

    According to him, N1.34 billion is still in the solid mineral Federation Accounts Allocation Committee ( FAAC ) sub-account in the Central bank of Nigeria ( CBN ) awaiting submission of data from Ministry of Mines and Steel Development ( MMSD ) for attribution.

    The RMAFC monitors accruals into the federation account and the disbursement of revenue from it.

  • Stakeholders urge FG to stop illegal export of minerals

    Stakeholders urge FG to stop illegal export of minerals

    Stakeholders at the on-going maiden National Council on Mining and Mineral Resources Development, have called on the Federal Government ( FG ) to check  illegal mining and unauthorised exports of minerals in the country.

    The stakeholders, who made the call in different presentations at a technical session of the meeting in Abuja, urged the Federal Government to tackle illegal issuance of mining licence by some state governments.

    In addition, they urged the government to address geo-science data, defaulting in the payment of taxes and royalties as well as multiple taxation in the sector.

    Mr Ebhota Al-Amin, a mining research and policy development expert, in his presentation, said mining had not been able to contribute meaningfully to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) because of those challenges.

    Al-min , who gave a presentation on “Illegal Mining and Export Challenges: Policy Recommendations’’, said the sector had not been contributing  significantly to GDP  because a good percentage of exports in the sector remained undocumented.

    He said the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) should be more involved in exportation of minerals as being done in other mineral-rich countries.

    Also, Prof. Peter Akper of Equity Law Partners,  dwelt on the various obstacles affecting the growth of the sector.

    Akper, who presented a paper, “Creating Effective Regulation and Legal Framework for Mining Sector,’’ commended the government’s on-going reform in the sector with its attendant growth.

    He also observed that the country had well-structured mining laws.

    The professor, however, said that the government needed to do more enforcement of existing laws and strengthening of institution, to achieve excellent result.

    Other stakeholders who spoke, urged the Federal Government to enforce mining regulations to enhance the growth of the sector.

    They also urged the government to focus more on strengthening sector governance to fully realise its economic diversification plan through mining.

    According to them, strengthening the sector governance will enable government to manage the available mineral resources and compete favourably in the global mineral and mining market.

    The meeting, which started with the technical session, is expected to discuss memoranda in five chosen thematic areas for approval at the ministerial session.

    The permanent secretary is the chairman of the technical session while  the minister of mines and steel development will chair the ministerial session on Thursday.

    The theme of the three-day meeting is “Enhancing Mineral Resources Governance towards Economic Growth and Diversification’’.

  • Monetary policy offers limited tools for economic recovery – Emefiel

    Monetary policy offers limited tools for economic recovery – Emefiel

    Mr Godwin Emefiele, the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), says monetary policy offers limited tools for dealing with the current economic challenges in the country.

    Emefiele said this while delivering a keynote lecture at the 2017 Annual Conference of Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) in Lagos.

    The lecture was titled “The Dilemma of Monetary Policy During a Recession: Potential Options for Nigeria”.

    Emefiele identified the current challenges facing Nigeria as falling Gross Domestic Products (GDP) growth rate, rising inflation, persistently high interest rates, falling foreign exchange reserves and depreciating exchange rate.

    He said the CBN could not tackle these challenges with the tool available to it with the objective of changing the outcomes for the better.

    The governor pointed that CBN had always used monetary policy implementation at its disposal in controlling interest rates and money supply to moderate inflation and achieve economic growth.

    Emefiele said these problems occurred simultaneously and needed to be dealt with over a short period of time.

    According to him, the real dilemma the country is faced with is that there are significant trade-offs in outcomes of economic variables regardless of what specific monetary policy the nation implemented.

    “For example, one would expect that given the bank’s core mandate to pursue low inflation, the central bank would implement policies geared towards that.

    “In order to tackle high inflation, the correct monetary policy would be to tighten money supply either by increasing the Cash Reserve Requirement (CRR) of banks, mopping up money through increased Open Market Operations or raising the Liquidity Ratio of banks.

    “While doing any or a combination of these would help moderate inflationary pressure, it could ensure that interest rates remain high and may even be inimical to restoring economic growth in the short term.

    He, therefore, said that bank would need the support and cooperation of the NBA to build synergy towards the achievement of the various policy options enumerated.

    According to him, the CBN is leading other stakeholders through the Financial System Strategy 2020 (FSS2020) in order to achieve stability in the financial system.

    He said this would help to develop a robust, globally competitive and market friendly legal framework for Nigeria’s financial sector by the year 2020.

    “FSS 2020 intends to apply the instrumentality of the law as a vehicle to fast-track the development of Nigeria’s financial system.

    “As such, this is one area where the CBN would need the support of the NBA.”

    Emefiele said that one of the major lessons learnt from the recent global financial crises was the need to develop adequate frameworks and appropriate tools for managing financial stability.

    “In this regard, the Financial Services Regulation  Coordinating Committee led by the CBN, is putting together a robust framework that will adequately promote stability of the Nigeria’s financial system.

    The governor also said that it was imperative that the NBA should be ready and willing to partner with the CBN in areas like legislative advocacy.

    He said this would ensure quick promulgation of robust legislations in support of chosen policy options and vigorous support for establishment of commercial courts to facilitate speedy resolution of commercial disputes.

    Others, he said, were provision of constructive inputs for the development of robust financial sector legislative bills and other regulations and checkmating unbridled recourse to the use of interlocutory applications to frustrate legitimate expectations in commercial and financial disputes to contribute.

    He urged every Nigerian to contribute his or her quota to national development.

    “I am not unaware of the short-term pains we are all going through right now. But gold glitters after it has gone through enormous heat.

    “Let us, therefore, use this opportunity to look inwards, diversify our economy, produce locally, and create jobs
    for our unemployed youths.

    “Even when we disagree about the way forward, we should do so in good faith and never lose sight of what is important.

    “We should remain resolutely committed to the course and be motivated by the achievability of our desire to strengthen our economic fundamentals.”

     

  • FG engages international audit firms to recover TSA funds from banks

    FG engages international audit firms to recover TSA funds from banks

    The federal government has unleashed international audit firms to reconcile and retrieve public sector funds being withheld by banks.

    Mr. Hamza Adeyemi, Director Funds office of the Accountant General of the Federation (AGF) made the disclosure Thursday in Abuja.

    Adeyemi lamented that “banks have thrown professionalism to the winds; some banks are still holding on to funds of Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) not transferred to the Treasury Single Account (TSA).”

    This he said is Inspite of the fact that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had sanctioned some banks by directly debiting the accounts of banks.

    Adeyemi stated that the federal government in 2004, lost over N70 billion funds while in the possession of commercial banks.

    To recover and reconcile all public sector accounts, Adeyemi said “accounting /auditing firms are auditing banks to recover funds still with banks. Some of the audit firms involved are Ernst and Young, PWC etc, the audit will be very comprehensive.”

    He accused banks of not adhering to presidential directive to return all public funds in their possession to the TSA domiciled in CBN.

    As recently as some few weeks ago, Adeyemi said more money was recovered from some banks still holding to government monies.

    Government he assured “is monitoring to ensure that these monies are paid into the federation’s coffers. Comprehensive reconciliation is ongoing. A lot has been done but more still needs to be done.”

    When asked to comment of the some idle funds captured under the TSA, Adeyemi disclosed that there is “over N300 billion idle funds in (TSA) a special CBN available window to be invested in Treasury Bills (TB) which attracts interest. The interest accrued goes back to the TSA of government” he said.

    Speaking to the success of the TSA, Adeyemi noted that “this is the first time in the history of this country that N1.2 trillion will be disbursed for capital projects in the 2016 fiscal year. This is because of TSA, in the past some of the monies were fixed in the banks or just idling away in the banks not being used for what they are meant for.”

    With the introduction of TSA, Adeyemi added that the exact amount in the consolidated cash position of the federal government can now be accessed by the AGF at the touch of botton thus availing the government of how much it has at its disposal for spending.

    Earlier, Mr. Mohammed Usman, Director Inspectorate Department of the OAGF fingered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for withholding unspent cash at the end of the financial year.

    According to Usman, “INEC says it is empowered to retain funds, but we (OAGF) have written to the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) for clarification on that because it is part of public accounts procedure to return left over cash to the chest.”

    Usman said “the issue is now a subject with the public accounts committee of the National Assembly since 2015.”

    He also disclosed that all MDAs at one time or the other have fallen short of keeping proper assets register. According to Usman, “all MDAs are not abreast with the asset register. It has become more imperative now giving the new accounting techniques adopted by the federal government to keep accurate assets register.”