Fidelia Okafor.

Since the full take off of the Treasury Single Account (TSA), all federal government agencies rake in an average of N13 billion daily.

This disclosure was made by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo who was represented by Dr Adeyemi Dipeolu, Special Adviser, Economic Matters to the President, office of the Vice President at a two-day retreat to review TSA implementation in Abuja.

According to Vice President Osinbajo, “there is now improved visibility of Government revenues and cash flows. Before TSA implementation, it was difficult for relevant Institutions to determine the Federal Government cash position in a timely manner. Now the position is clear; with an average of N13 billion accruing to all Government agencies every single working day. This improves decision making and engenders efficiency in Public Financial Management.”

Another key outcome of the implementation of TSA he said “has been the elimination of the revenue and expenditure float. Before TSA, it took an average of 28 days to access cash after the revenue had been collected through commercial banks and about 21 days for MDAs to access their budgetary allocations after release from Treasury. These timing differences which adversely affected budget implementation have now been eliminated.”

The Vice President was happy that the implementation of TSA has led to significant “removal of ways and means financing costs that were depleting resources available for service delivery through budget implementation.”

With these development, Osinbajo stated that “the economy is set to reap the full benefits of blocking the leakages in revenue collection that hitherto fuelled corruption and impaired growth.”

This improved transparency the Vice President added now “discourages would-be offenders as information technology solutions deployed as a result of TSA implementation means that there are no more hiding places.”

Vice President Osinbajo noted that “there is more to be done to harness the benefits of TSA implementation. For instance, the reforms we have started with regard
to budget preparation must continue to completion. Ideally, the budget should be comprehensive and transparent and as much as possible enacted before the beginning of the financial year.”

Osinbajo cautioned that, “since most of the cash resources moved into TSA are extra budgetary harvesting the fruits of TSA implementation would entail that public resources be allocated in a manner that would enable total fungibility of cash.”