Nigeria to expand treasury single account coverage

The Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, on Tuesday said the Federal Government was determined to expand the coverage of the Treasury Single Account (TSA) to cover more agencies in 2017.

Speaking in Abuja at the opening of a two-day retreat on the TSA, the Minister, who described the implementation of the policy as a success story, said the Federal Government would expand the programme and continue to persuade statutory agencies to come under the Treasury Single Account.

The Minister, who disclosed that the Federal Government was already discussing with service providers, said government would improve the implementation and functionality of the TSA because of its huge benefits.

She also stated that the government would be reaching out to TSA service providers in order to allow other e-commerce and e-payment providers access the platform, which, according to her, is very important to make the TSA as competitive as possible, in terms of pricing.

“One of the challenges that we have is who should bear the cost of the TSA? Currently, it is being borne centrally but that is not sustainable. We are now working on how to stratify the various agencies. Those who should bear their own costs and costs that should be borne by the government. This will be rolled out in this year,” the Minister stated.

Speaking on the broader benefits of the TSA, the Minister said the Federal Government, through the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, has issued circulars to banks arising from revelations through the implementation of the whistleblower policy, that some banks have not fully remitted government funds in their possession.

She stated, “There are still funds in commercial banks and we have written to the banks, giving them a window to come forward. Where in doubt, they have been asked to consult us. We also have an audit team that has started the process of checking the completeness of monies that were transferred into the TSA and already, they have been able to recover a significant amount of money”.

She stated that the TSA policy is here to stay, saying the policy, which she described as an important reform of the current administration, allows Government to reduce its borrowing costs.

“The policy allows us to manage our treasury functions with far more accuracy than what we had in the past. There is still a long way to go but overall, we are very satisfied with the progress we have made and we look forward to it being extended and utilised far more as the year goes on,” the Minister stated.