President Buhari Stops Multiple Accounts Meant For keeping Revenues and Incomes by Ministries & Agencies

President Muhammadu Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari on Sunday ordered all ministries, agencies and departments of government to immediately put a stop to the current arrangement in which they operate multiple bank accounts for the purpose of keeping revenues and incomes.

He said henceforth, agencies of government must start paying revenues, incomes and other receipts into what he called a Treasury Single Account domiciled with the Central Bank of Nigeria.

The directive was contained in a statement made available to journalists by the Senior Special Assistant to the Vice President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Laolu Akande.

Akande explained that the President’s directive was meant to promote transparency and facilitate compliance with Sections 80 and 162 of the 1999 Constitution.

“Henceforth, all receipts due to the Federal Government or any of its agencies must be paid into TSA or designated accounts maintained and operated in the Central Bank of Nigeria, except otherwise expressly approved,” the statement said.

Akande further explained that the presidential directive would end the previous public accounting situation of several fragmented accounts for government revenues, incomes and receipts.

He said the existing system had been leading to loss or leakages of legitimate income meant for the Federation Account.

He added that the directive applied to fully funded organs of government like ministries, departments, agencies and foreign missions, as well as the partially-funded ones like teaching hospitals, medical centres and federal tertiary institutions among others.

“Agencies like the CBN, SEC, CAC, NPA, NCC, FAAN, NCAA, NIMASA, NDIC, NSC, NNPC, FIRS, NCS, MMSD, DPR are also affected.

“For any agency that is fully or partially self-funding, sub-accounts linked to TSA are to be maintained at CBN and the accounting system will be configured to allow them access to funds based on their approved budgetary provisions,” he further explained.

A TSA, according to Akande, is a unified structure of government bank accounts enabling consolidation and optimal utilisation of government cash resources.

He further described it as a bank account or a set of linked bank accounts through which the government transacts all its receipts and payments and gets a consolidated view of its cash position at any given time.

Buhari had, during the inaugural meeting of the Vice President Yemi Osinbajo-led National Economic Council on June 29, promised state governors that all revenues prescribed for lodgement into the Federation Account would be treated as such under his watch.

He had also promised to ensure strict compliance with all relevant laws on accounting, allocation and disbursement.

Since then, the Presidency was said to have been working with relevant agencies of the government to evolve this policy directive.