The Minister of Finance Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed
By BENJAMIN ORISEMEKE, Abuja –
The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed on Monday revealed that corporates, individuals, Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) are indebted to the federal government to the tune of N5.2 trillion.
Nigeria is expected to borrow over N5 trillion to finance its 2022 budget deficit.
Making the disclosure at the formal launch of the Project Lighthouse Debt Analytics and Reporting Platform on Monday in Abuja, Ahmed said the amount is owed by over 5000 debtors across 10 MDAs.
Out of that amount, the minister said, the sum of N53.5 billion has so far been recovered with the help of the Project Lighthouse platform.
“Sequel to the issuance of the Finance Circular, the Ministry through the consolidation efforts of the project, has been able to aggregate monumental debts of approximately N5.2 trillion. These debts came to the spotlight from data aggregated from over 5,000+ debtors across ten (10) Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).”
She noted that lack of use of technology especially in the present age of technology has made policy implementation collection difficult. According to the minister, it has led to several challenges.
“Working in collaboration with the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF), we have been able to recover the sum of N53.5 billion within the last 12-18 month, through the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS) as a recovery touch point. However, to consolidate on the current effort of this project, a Debt Recovery Application has been built to be monitored by the new Debt Recovery Unit.
The data included tax records from tax authorities, company ownership and directors from Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), land records from land registries, Company directors’ information from NAICOM, AMCON, Non-structured data from online sources, Contractor payment records from GIFMIS, Remita, etc.
Ahmed explained that with the project consultants working with the Debt Recovery Unit in the ministry, the government will have an will up-to-date records of its credit status by harmonising debt records across all MDAs within the country, give debtors access to a platform to view and offset debt in a seamless and secured manner as well as strengthen the institutional framework for enforcement and management of the Federal Debt Recovery plan.
She insisted that with the platform in place and the cooperation of Nigerians in providing relevant information, government’s effort at improving revenue generation will yield result.
“To this end, I want to use the opportunity to urge all FGOEs and MDAs to update their list of debtors on a month-on-month basis against the Project Lighthouse debt recovery portfolio. This also encompasses the development of an institutional framework for enforcement, recovery and management of the fiscal environment.
The main capabilities of the system includes, allowing the admin to create users and their usage profiles; the owners/representatives of registered companies with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), sign up on the system and ascertain the status of their liabilities to the government. It also enables the debtor to offset debt in a seamless and secured manner etc.
In her goodwill message, Chairman, Carter Consulting, Mrs Fatima Mede said that with Nigeria’s revenue challenge, there is need to be able to properly account for whatever comes into government coffers.
Mrs. Mede noted for the project to work successfully, all hands must be on deck.
“We know the crux of the challenge we have in this country is about revenue. We need money, we need to be able to account for all that we receive because from what you hear out there: Nigeria is owing XYZ, nobody talks about the amount being owed the government?
People are also indebted to Nigeria. I think it is our collective responsibility to get to know those who are indebted to Nigeria and who have continued to collect payment from Nigeria’s treasury. We need to reconcile the books,” she said.
