President Buhari on Sunday ordered that all government ministries, agencies and parastatals in charge of sourcing revenue for the government must now remit such monies into one account in accordance with sections 80 and 162 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
A statement from the presidency said henceforth, all receipts due to the Federal Government or any of its agencies must be paid into Treasury Single Account (TSA) or designated accounts maintained and operated in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), except otherwise expressly approved.
Also affected are agencies like the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Securities and Exchange Commission, Corporate Affairs Commission, Nigeria Ports Authority, National Communications Commission, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, NIMASA, NDIC, NSC, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation , Federal Inland Revenue Service, NCS, MMSD, and the DPR.
A TSA, according to the statement from the Vice President’s office, is a unified structure of government bank accounts enabling consolidation and optimal utilisation of government cash resources.
“It is 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.
“This presidential directive would end the previous public accounting situation of several fragmented accounts for government revenues, incomes and receipts, which in the recent past has meant the loss or leakages of legitimate income meant for the federation account.”
The statement further said President Muhammadu Buhari had earlier promised state governors at the inaugural meeting of the National Economic Council, NEC, in June, that all revenues prescribed for lodgement into the federation account will be treated as such under his watch and that he will ensure strict compliance with all relevant laws on accounting, allocation and disbursement.
“Since then the presidency has worked with relevant agencies of the federal government to evolve this policy directive.
“This directive applies to fully funded organs of government like the Ministries, Departments, Agencies and Foreign Missions, as well as the partially funded ones, like Teaching Hospitals, Medical Centres, Federal Tertiary Institutions, etc.
The statement said for any agency that is fully or partially self-funding, sub-accounts linked to the TSA are to be maintained at CBN with an accounting system to be configured to allow them access funds based on their approved budgetary provisions.
Single TSA Prone to Hack Attacks & Mass Retrenchments
However, huhuonline.com checks shows that the introduction single TSA with the CBN will make Nigeria susceptible in case of hack attacks.
Huhuonline.com gathered that the Treasury Single Account (TSA) will cause a dip in the shares of the commercial banks as government which forms the largest Customer base of most commercial banks withdraws its monies.
Our findings also shows the introduction of the TSA will result in the réduction in the volume of bussiness at the commercial banks, which will éventually force them to engage in mass retrenchment of workers.
On other hand the volume of buissness at the Central Bank of Nigeria will increase,but the question that remains,is will the Central Bank of Nigeria provide jobs for all thèse workers that will retrenched by the commercial banks ?
