Stories from Uche Usim, Abuja
The Federal Government says it has generated over N3 trillion since the commencement of Treasury Single Account (TSA) policy.
The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, made the disclosure in a document to highlight the programmes of the ministry in the past 24 months.
According to her, the government put its feet down to ensure full compliance by Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) since it remains an initiative created to ensure efficient and transparent management of Federal Government’s finances and revenue collections. She said the programme helps monitor and manage revenue from revenue collecting and revenue generating agencies of government through a window.
“The Federal Government has so far mopped up over N3 trillion as revenue accruals since the policy of TSA commenced,” she stated.
On the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), an Information Communications Technology (ICT) project initiated by the Federal Government, Adeosun said the project commenced in April 2007 with seven pilot MDAs.
“It has the objective of ensuring centralised payment of salaries; aiding of manpower planning and budgeting as well as reducing financial wastages. At present, capturing of more agencies on the IPPIS platform is ongoing and we are working tirelessly to ensure that all institutions of government are captured under IPPIS,” she stated.
The Minister also commented on the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA), which manages the $1.5 billion Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) and described it as having the potential of having a defining impact on infrastructure financing in the country.
“They stand out because they are innovative, practical and built on standard frameworks that are designed to encourage profitable, sustainable investments by the private sector. A notable component of the entity’s infrastructure investment strategy is the building of strategic partnerships with reputable global investment companies with a view to attracting inflow of global finance for infrastructure development.
“Beginning in 2014, NSIA, under the supervision of the Ministry of Finance, has entered into a collaboration with GuarantCo, a leading international credit guarantee firm to explore ways to unlock latent pools of capital for investments in infrastructure. It’s partner, GuarantCo, is sponsored by the governments of Australia, United Kingdom, Sweden, Switzerland and Netherlands through the Private Infrastructure Development Group and has had extensive experience in such schemes in diverse economies, some similar to Nigeria’s. The outcome of the collaboration was the establishment of InfraCredit in early 2017.
“The Infrastructure Credit Enhancement Company, otherwise called InfraCredit, is designed to help address and overcome existing constraints in the supply of local financing to infrastructure projects and help the development of the local financial markets. Being the first of its kind in Nigeria, the company is set to play a critical and game changing role in facilitating access to finance for infrastructure projects. This it will do by providing credit guarantees for infrastructure bonds issued by corporate bodies and state governments to finance viable development projects in the country,” she said.