By Longtong Ibrahim
Kaduna (Nigeria) – Nigeria’s Accountant-General Amed Idris, has said that the implementation of the Treasury Single Account (TSA) is highly successful as over 97% MDAs have enrolled into the scheme.
He also noted that, as at December 2015, Seven hundred and twenty-six (726) MDAs which are responsible for 97.12% of the national budget have complied and have been captured under the Government Integrated Financial Management Information Scheme (GIFMIS) enabled TSA.
Statement by the director of press of the Accountant General’s office K. N. Offie noted that the Accountant General stated this recently during an opening ceremony of a one-day Workshop in Abuja on TSA, organized by his office in collaboration with International Monetary Fund (IMF) – with the theme; TSA: Concept, Design, Benefits And Implementation For States’ Accountants-General.
It explained that the main aim of the Workshop was to sensitize the states to enroll onto the TSA as well as highlight the benefits accruing from the implementation of scheme through sharing of experiences by the Federal Government who is already practicing TSA.
According to the statement, Idris noted that, TSA is not an innovation as the policy was adopted since 2011, noting that, it has been improved upon and modified with Sub-accounts created while consolidated revenue fund (CRF ) remains the TSA main Account – TSA is very flexible and that MDAs can easily access their Funds as at when needed.
While itemizing the reason for TSA, he said that the need to stem financial hemorrhage and plug all loopholes occasioned the Government’s decision to implement the TSA and he explained that TSA is the beginning of the end of massive borrowing in Nigeria.
Earlier in his opening speech, the representative of the Minister for Finance cum Special Adviser to the Minister Mr. Adeseye Senfuye commended the Office of the Accountant-General (OAGF) and IMF for organizing the Workshop.
He however advised all stakeholders at the workshop to take the advantage of the opportunity to brainstorm on how to block all leakages, improve the efficiency of the revenue base of the nation; adding that, the implementation of TSA would bring about expenditure discipline and stop unnecessary accumulation of idle funds in commercial banks.
