Nigeria recorded N3 trillion inflow into the Treasury Single Account TSA) in the first quarter of 2016. The Accountant General of the Federation (AGF), Alhaji Ahmed Idris disclosed this at the ICAN, UK International Zonal Conference held in London. He said that as at end of March, 2016, total inflows into TSA was about N3 trillion [$15billion] while the number of MDAs on TSA has risen to 976.
Addressing the global audience on the benefits of the Treasury Single Account (TSA) Idris said that the federal government has stopped borrowing from itself as commercial banks use MDAs idle balances to buy treasury bills and other short-term instruments.
According to him, successful TSA implementation rests on a tripod, which includes the collection of MDA receipts, payment by MDAs and budgetary control of MDAs spends.
He explained that two core systems supported TSA, the Government Integrated Financial Management and Information System (GIFMIS) at OAGF and the CBN Payment Gateway called Remita at CBN. The two systems were integrated and deployed in 2012.
He said: “TSA became fully operational in April, 2012 with 93 pilot MDAs accessing their allocations directly from the Consolidated Revenue Fund Account. Incrementally, MDAs on TSA went to 225 (2013), 345 (2014) and 706 (2015). Currently over 900 MDAs are on TSA.”
While listing the benefits of the TSA , Idris said the adoption of the system provides better information on the cash resources available to government at any point in time and the financing gap that need to be met.
He said the initiative has instilled fiscal discipline, eliminated the process of cash backing MDAs accounts with commercial banks, and gained economy of scale due since the adoption of the systems by the MDAs instead of investing resources in several ICT platforms. The system has also reduced average monthly ways and means advances of the CBN associated costs.
Other TSA benefits, according to him, are timely reconciliation of MDA accounts, elimination of commercial banks use of public funds for investment purposes, elimination of corrupt association between MDAs and commercial banks.
“TSA has also reduced the number of government bank accounts outside the CBN thereby strengthening controls, fast track the MDAs compliance with the e-payment and cashless policy of the CBN and improvement in monetary policy management of the CBN with positive impact on inflation”, he said.
