Henceforth, all ministries, agencies and departments of government will not be allowed to operate multiple bank accounts for the purpose of keeping revenues and incomes. President Muhammadu Buhari recently directed that all revenues, incomes and other receipts should be paid into what a Treasury Single Account, TSA, domiciled with the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN.
Laolu Akande, senior special assistant to the Vice President on Media and Publicity, 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,” he said.
According to him, the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, Corporate Affairs Commission, CAC, Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA, Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, Nigerian Civil Aviation, NCAA, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, Nigerian Deposit Insurance Commission, NDIC, Nigerian Shippers Counsil, NSC, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, Nigerian Customs Service, NCS, Ministry of Mines and Steel Development, MMSD, Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR, are the affected institutions.
“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 is a unified structure of government bank accounts enabling consolidation and optimal utilisation of government cash resources. Akande 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.