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Tag: Kemi Adeosun

FG approves Road Trust Fund

The Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Thursday approved the Road Trust Fund (RTF) towards facilitating and incentivising private sector involvement in the provision of Nigeria’s Federal road infrastructure.

The Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, disclosed this to State House correspondences at the end of FEC meeting.

According to her, it is a form of Public Private Partnership (PPP) that will accelerate the provision of Federal Roads by allowing private sector operators to collectively fund road provision in exchange for tax credits.

“This will complement Federal Government’s budgetary allocation to roads.” she said

October 26, 2017
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

October 4, 2017
2017 budget: FG, Senate clash over capital vote

The Senate on Tuesday disagreed with the Federal Government over plans to release an insignificant fraction of the N2.177 trillion capital vote in the 2017 budget.

This followed a revelation by the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, that the government could only release N440 billion out of the total amount.

Adeosun, who was joined by the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma, told the senators during an interactive session that the government lacked adequate funding for the budget.

The ministers said government intends to release over N100 billion this week, in addition to the N310 billion earlier released in the 2017 budget.

According to the ministers, it would be extremely difficult for the government to meet obligations in capital budget, pointing out that there was N2.3 trillion deficit in the 2017 capital budget.

Adeosun said the 2017 budget was projected mainly on external borrowing, adding that making further capital releases would depend on how fast the government could push the borrowing process.

She informed the lawmakers that domestic borrowing would not be enough to fund the gaps in the budget, stressing that the cost of domestic borrowing was getting too high.

She said borrowing from foreign sources was far cheaper than domestic borrowing.

She said even if the funds were to be available, government cannot release the entire N2.177 trillion capital vote within the three months left in the year.

Consequently, the ministers said about 60 percent of the 2017 capital budget would be rolled over to the 2018 budget, just as that of 2016 was similarly rolled over till May this year.

Worried by the huge gap in the capital budget and the actual amount to be released, the senators warned that the trend could cause serious injury to the economy.

The senators drew a parallel between Nigeria and Brazil in the handling of economic recession in the two countries.

The Brazilian economy had suffered recession for eight consecutive quarters but came out of it with 2.46 inflation rate and 10 percent misery rate.

The lawmakers had challenged the two ministers to explain why the Nigerian economy, which suffered recession for five consecutive quarters would come out with 16.5 percent inflation rate and over 50 percent misery rate.

October 3, 2017
Osinbajo calls for commitment in private sector

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Thursday called for the commitment of private sector in economic development as the country exited recession.

Osinbajo made the call at the 2017 Nigerian Debt Capital Markets Conference and Awards organised by FMDQ OTC Securities Exchange in Lagos.

NAN reports that Osinbajo was represented by Ms Patience Oniha, the Director-General of the Debt Management Office (DMO).

He said that the Federal Government required the commitment of all in its diversification strategy to achieve the desired economic growth.

According to the Vice President, with the growing population, the private sector participation is needed to complement the government’s efforts in area of infrastructure development.

He said that the private sector participation was important because the sector was efficient in handling projects anywhere in the world.

On the Nigerian Debt Capital Markets (DCM), he said the private sector needed the market to succeed in business.

According to him, the country needs a world-class capital market, which is an important factor as regard bond issuance.

He said that the ability of all sectors to access the debt capital market was necessary to bring the desired economic growth and diversification.

Osinbajo added that the present determination of Federal Government on the ease of doing business was to enable more investments flow into the country.

According to him, the ease of doing business makes it easier for business start ups to grow their businesses.

On the impact of FMDQ to the nation’s Debt Capital Market (DCM), the Vice President said that the existence of the platform had promoted the domestic fixed income market.

“FMDQ has a pivotal role to play in enabling the authorities meet the long-term projects required for the country,” he said.

The Finance Minister, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, reiterated that the debt capital market was important in terms of providing funding in the development of infrastructure in the country.

“DCM will help in deepening the nation’s finance market because we are going to see more direct portfolio investment into the country soon,” Adeosun said.

She noted that government was restructuring the economy to give the nation’s development a leap.

“My message to investors is to start taking positions now because Nigeria is growing aggressively economically.

“We are working very hard to use capital market to address the infrastructural deficit in the country.

“We have seen a lot of opportunities in the debt market to bridge the gap of funding infrastructure,” she said.

Adeosun said that Nigeria had all the indices of development and the needed competitive advantage.

NAN reports that the theme of the conference titled: “Positioning for growth” was part of the DCM’s aspiration to become a world-class market between 2020 and 2025.

It is also to provide workable solutions that will stimulate growth and accelerate the development of the Nigerian DCM.

September 28, 2017
Nigeria to reduce membership of international organizations

The Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Wednesday gave a presidential committee two weeks to conclude arrangements towards scaling down Nigeria’s membership of international organizations.

Briefing State House correspondents at the end of the FEC meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari, the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, said the FEC had proposed reduction of Nigeria’s membership of international organizations from 310 to 220.

Adeosun was accompanied to the briefing by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, and the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the President, Garba Shehu.

According to her, ministers have been asked to go back and review Nigeria’s membership of the organizations so that final report can be presented to FEC in the next two weeks.

Stressing that Nigeria has been paying $70 million annually on membership subscriptions, she said there was no need allowing subscription to accumulate in organizations that are not important to Nigeria’s developmental aspirations.

The new move, she said, was to prevent Nigeria from being embarrassed as the subscription arrears have continued to rise.

She said: “I’m briefing on a memo that was extensively discussed during FEC meeting. The Council deliberated on recommendations of an inter-ministerial working committee on the status of Nigeria’s membership of international organizations and associated financial obligations.

“Basically Nigeria is a member of 310 international organizations and a committee was set up to review the rationale of our continued membership of such large number of organizations, particularly in the light of the fact that in many cases we are not actually paying our financial obligations and subscriptions which is causing some embarrassment to Nigeria and our image abroad.

“In particular, it was discussed that there are some commitments made to international organizations by former presidents which were not cash backed.

“So when our delegations turn up at those organizations we become very embarrassed. So that was what drove the committee.”

“The committee made some recommendations, that out of the 310 organizations, 220 organizations should be retained and the rest we should withdraw membership from.

“But council directed that more work needed to be done, particularly there was a dispute as to the figure of how much is owed. The committee had a figure of about $120 million but we heard from Ministry of Finance and other ministries that is far more than that. Our subscriptions are in arrears in several major organizations.”

September 27, 2017
FG uncovers fraud in JAMB, NIMASA, others

…Moves against agencies not remitting full revenue

The Federal Executive Council meeting chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday directed the Ministry of Finance to immediately recover moneys not remitted to government coffers by some agencies.

The Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun briefed State House correspondents at the end of the FEC meeting.

She said that some of the government agencies of have been uncovered to be diverting their revenues.

JAMB, which she said has been remitting N3 million annually, has remitted N5 billion for this year alone and has disclosed that it still has N3 billion more to remit to government purse this year.

According to her, NIMASA is among other agencies, which are high offenders.

September 13, 2017
Fed Govt gives conditions for further support to states

The federal government has warned state and local governments that further financial support to them will be based on how well they implement the 22 Action points of the Fiscal Sustainability Plan (FSP).

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo made this declaration yesterday in Abuja at a workshop organized by the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) on alternative sources of revenue generation for sustainable development in states and local government councils in Nigeria.

Represented by the finance minister Kemi Adeosun, Osinbajo noted that “independent monitoring and evaluation of states against agreed milestones under the FSP, has been conducted and further consideration for support to states, will be solely dependent on reports from this exercise.”

The Vice President stated that “fiscal discipline, improved revenue generation, rational allocation and efficient use of resources, must be strategies adhered to by every tier of government if we must return to a path of sustainable growth.”

The 22-Point FSP for states and local governments he said “was introduced and acceded to by states governments in 2016 with the view to enhancing fiscal prudence and transparency in public expenditure, monitoring the ongoing public financial management reforms being undertaken by the federal government.”

Osinbajo added that the strategic objective 2 of the FSP was focused on improving public revenues, requiring each state to set realistic and achievable targets for improving Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) from all revenue generating activities of the state in addition to tax collection.”

The idea, he said, “was for each state government to look inwards and come up with a plan that was best suited for their states based on available resources.”

Other action points for the state governments include privatisation of state-owned enterprises, establishment of efficiency units to reduce overhead expenditures, biometric capture of all civil servants, implementation of continuous audit to reduce revenue leakages and measures to achieve sustainable debt management.

Acting Chairman of the RMAFC, Alhaji Shettima Umar Abba-Gana, said the commission was designing new sources of revenue and ways of generating and collecting these revenues for the benefit of the states and local governments.

He lamented that the challenges of a troubled economy, caused by drastic fall in the international price of crude oil, the fall in the level of oil production, security challenges and general drop in national productivity negatively affected the inflow of funds into the Federation Account.

Abba-Gana expressed optimism that in due course, the over-dependence on statutory transfers of funds from the Federation Account for governance by the states and local governments would begin to reduce.

September 12, 2017
FG gives conditions for further support to states

…RMAFC designing new sources of revenue for states and LGs

The federal government has warned state and local governments that further financial support to them will be based on how well they implement the 22 Action points of the Fiscal Sustainability Plan (FSP).

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo made this declaration Monday in Abuja at a workshop organized by the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) on alternative sources of revenue generation for sustainable development in states and local government councils in Nigeria.

Represented by the finance minister Kemi Adeosun, Osinbajo noted that “independent monitoring and evaluation of states against agreed milestones under the FSP, has been conducted and further consideration for support to states, will be solely dependent on reports from this exercise.”

The Vice President stated that “fiscal discipline, improved revenue generation, rational allocation and efficient use of resources, must be strategies adhered to by every tier of government if we must return to a path of sustainable growth.”

The 22-Point FSP for states and local governments he said “was introduced and acceded to by states governments in 2016 with the view to enhancing fiscal prudence and transparency in public expenditure, monitoring the ongoing public financial management reforms being undertaken by the federal government.”

Osinbajo added that the strategic objective 2 of the FSP was focused on improving public revenues, requiring each state to set realistic and achievable targets for improving Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) from all revenue generating activities of the state in addition to tax collection.”

The idea he said; “was for each state government to look inwards and come up with a plan that was best suited for their states based on available resources.”

Other action points for the state governments include privatization of state owned enterprises, establishment of efficiency units to reduce overhead expenditures, biometric capture of all civil servants, implementation of continuous audit to reduce revenue leakages and measures to achieve sustainable debt management.

Earlier in his address, the Acting Chairman of the RMAFC, Alhaji Shettima Umar Abba-Gana, said the commission was designing new additional sources of revenue and ways and means of generating and collecting these revenues for the benefit of the states and local governments.

He lamented that the challenges of a troubled economy, occasioned by drastic fall in the international price of crude oil, the fall in the level of oil production security challenges and General drop in national productivity negatively affected the inflow of funds into the Federation Account.

Abba-Gana expressed optimism that in due course, the over dependence on statutory transfers of funds from the Federation Account for governance by the states and local governments will begin to reduce.

September 11, 2017
Ministers, CBN governor brief Buhari on economy

President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday received briefings from some ministers and Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefuele, on the state of the economy.

Buhari, who was in the United Kingdom for 103 days on medical vacation, expressed delight at the improving economy.

The ministers, who briefed the President, included the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udoma Udo Udoma and the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun.

A statement issued by the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the President, Femi Adesina, reads: “For almost two hours, President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday received briefing from the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma, the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, and Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele, after which a delighted President declared that he was pleased with the progress being made on different fronts.”

According to him, the ministers and CBN Governor updated the President on the improving state of the economy, implementation of the 2017 Budget, preparation for the 2018 Budget, revenue strategies, combined cost reduction and debt management.

They also discussed monetary policy strategies and their economic impact, among others.

President Buhari, while reminding the ministers and CBN Governor that reviving the economy was one of the major planks on which the campaign of his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), was based, expressed gladness that things were looking up after two years of yeoman’s job.

August 28, 2017
Pictures: Buhari meets Adeosun, Udoma, CBN governor

August 28, 2017