The Federal Government of Nigeria on a monthly basis saves about N4.7 billion ($12.8 million) through the Treasury Single Account (TSA), the Accountant General of the Federation (AGF), Ahmed Idris, has revealed.

Speaking at a two-day workshop organized for finance journalists in Abuja, he explained that the amount represents various charges and interests on loans as well as account maintenance fees previously imposed by the Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) for holding funds belonging to government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs). According to Idris, the government had been able to block leakages and avoid various bank charges on government funds through the policy.

“The TSA has enabled us to make tremendous gains. We have successfully eliminated multiple banking arrangements resulting in the consolidation of over 20,000 bank accounts, which were spread over DMBs 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 characterized the public financial management before the implementation of the TSA. The TSA has taken us out of the era of indiscriminate borrowings by the MDAs and saved government charges associated with those borrowings, which hitherto amounted to N4.7 billion monthly,” he said.

The Treasury Single Account it should be recalled was introduced by the federal government of Nigeria in 2012, to consolidate all inflows from all agencies of government into a single account at the Central Bank of Nigeria.

Anita Fatunji