Finance minister, Kemi Adeosun, has disclosed that the Treasury Single Account (TSA) has accumulated from N2.2 trillion to N2.9 trillion.
This comes as the nation’s apex bank has disclosed that $20 billion is lying idle in domiciliary accounts in the country.
Also, the Joint Committee on Appropriation has said the implementation of N500 billion intervention fund contained in 2016 budget proposal would not be feasible since there were no clear-cut implementation strategies.
This came to the fore when the National Assembly Joint Committees on Appropriation had an interactive session with top government officials in Abuja on Thursday.
Adeosun, however, explained that the N2.9 trillion might not be used to fund the proposed N6.08 trillion 2016 budget, because some part of it would be used as operating cost for key revenue-generating agencies of the Federal Government.
“The total volume of the TSA is now N2.9 trillion, but as the money comes, we cannot just mop it up to finance the 2016 budget. Some of the money coming from the NNPC and others into the account for example, may be used to fund some of its projects,” she said.
According to Adeosun, the oil price decline is a blessing in disguise, as it will spur creativity in governance and allow government to focus on harnessing resources from non-oil sectors.
On his part, Udoma Udo Udoma, minister of budget and national planning, revealed that the executive’s intention was to allow private sector funding for the mineral and agricultural sectors.
The budget proposal for Solid Minerals Ministry is N9 billion, while that of the Agriculture Ministry is N43 billion.
“Government intends to provide enabling environment for the Agriculture and Mineral sectors to thrive. Solid minerals need brain work, not billions of naira, and so for the Agricultural sector, so government wants the private sector to drive these areas,” he said.
Udoma also told the committee that government has already reduced the proposal for salaries, travels and other non-capital proposed spending by 9 percent and may reduce more.
He also disclosed, “the government wants to make arrangements with airlines to cut the cost of flights for public officials,” but however admitted that “this is the most difficult budget that we have had to deal with for a long time” and acknowledged the prerogative of the National Assembly in deciding how the final budget would look like.
Although Joseph Nnana, deputy governor, Financial System and Surveillance at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), who represented CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, was silent on names of individual involved, he warned that those who speculate on naira will have their finger burnt when the 2016 budget is passed because the CBN will embark on aggressive liquidity mop-up to enable naira regain confidence.
His words: “Naira problem is our own making, some individuals are speculating on the dollars to the detriment of the naira. Why should we have individuals that have $20 billion in different domiciliary account idle? Volatility in exchange will not continue after the passage of 2016 budget, those who speculate on naira will have their fingers burnt by that time because we are going to embark on aggressive liquidity mop-up to make the naira stronger.”
Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriation, Danjuma Goje said the implementation of N500billion social intervention fund contained in 2016 budget proposal may not be feasible since there were no clear implementation strategies.
He therefore suggested that the money be added to the budgetary allocation for sectors like power, transport and health while those responsible would map out better strategy for the project in the 2017 budget.
He said: “We are all happy with the programme and I am a party man but what needs to be done needs to be done very well. I think there is a need to do a greater work on implementation otherwise this money will go down the drain.
“We support this programme we want Mr President to succeed, we want our party to succeed, we want to continue to win this election but we want the programme to be successful.
“So, Mr Minister, we want you to come up with workable implementation strategy otherwise there are so many things that require attention in this country.
“We would rather use this money to solve our problem, use this year to do very sound ground work for implementation so that the programme can take off next year”.
Responding, Udoma said the special intervention programme was a political commitment, which the present administration would not hesitate to fulfil.
He promised to meet with relevant stakeholders to discuss on better strategies for implementation.
