FG Considers TSA Funds to Part-fund Budget

• FG Considers TSA Funds to Part-fund Budget

The Federal Government is currently planning a framework that will allow it to deploy some of the funds in the Treasury Single Account for the implementation of projects contained in the national budget.

The Accountant General of the Federation, Alhaji Ahmed Idris, disclosed this on the sidelines of a retreat on the TSA.

Since the policy became fully operational in September 2015, about N5.2tn has accrued to the account.

The retreat was attended by stakeholders in the private and public sectors of the economy.

Idris said while the implementation of the policy had been successful, there was a need to harness its immense potential in budgeting and debt management.

For instance, he said that while the policy had helped to reduce the amount of borrowed funds by the government, there was a need to have a mechanism that would allow the balances in the TSA to be used in a profitable manner for budget execution.

Idris said, “We have been able to run the TSA successfully and we have consolidated all resources of government agencies coming together into a single window to see how much government has in liquid. We have been able to track government revenue by seeing the inflow and that has helped us to harness the benefits of the TSA.

“The TSA is one of the critical aspect of our reforms. Beyond mere cash management, there is a need to look particularly in this time of recession to see how best we can deploy the large balances that we have been keeping with the CBN for the betterment of the economy

“We must sit and this retreat is just the beginning of this discussion, it is not an end to it. All the stakeholders will continue to talk and we will be advising the government appropriately. It is not something that we will do tomorrow; we have to sit on how we deploy them profitably into very efficient and very viable instruments. So all that need to be worked out.”

The Managing Director, SystemSpecs, Mr. John Obaro, said while the implementation of the TSA was turbulent at the beginning, it’s success had added value to the country and the economy.

He said, “Now that things have reasonably settled down, we can now begin to speak to real issues such as improved operational processes, and the utilisation of the massive data that is now readily available to government.

“This can be used for economic planning and a lot of other things can be derived from what is currently available.”

He said through the receive and payment platform provided by the company for the TSA policy, Remita, Nigerians would soon be enjoying better services though their mobile phones in making payments for government services.

Obaro stated, “We want to enhance our system to address a number of the challenges. For instance, we are aware that many people have had to go to the bank to make one payment or the other, but what we want to do is to move this to a mobile phone.

“In the coming weeks, people will be able to transact directly from their mobile phones to do all their TSA transactions. This is a way of ensuring that they are in better control without having to visit bank branches or even using debit and credit cards.

“This will go a long way in addressing some of the challenges that have already been identified.”