Nigeria’s strict economic policy brings old investors back – Adeosun

Nigeria’s minister of finance, Kemi Adeosun, has disclosed that the country’s economic policy, which curtails extravagance and fights corruption ‎in the high places, is already bringing back old investors, and appealing to the prospective ones.

Adeosun says Federal Government is working to evolve pragmatic and prudent management of Nigeria’s resources.

While amazed at the massive corruption unearthed by the Office of Accountant-General through ongoing verification and biometric exercise for public and civil servants as well as military and paramilitary officers in the country, Adeosun said over 43,000 ghost workers had been discovered across the country, which had saved Nigeria N4.5 billion on monthly basis.

Speaking ‎during a working visit to Sagamu Police Area Command in Ogun State, one of the centres where verification and biometric exercise took place at the weekend, the minister noted that the exercise would not only fight corruption in civil service, but would also enable government to pay its workforce much earlier than month’s end.

‎She said: “Nigeria is going through change and despite the declining oil prices the fundamental things about the Nigerian economy remain strong. What we have to do is to make sure this painful period is used to our advantage by removing wasteful spending, stopping corruption, so that when money is spent by government, it’s spent very effectively to the benefit of the people, and that is what is going to make this economy recover.

“Old investors are coming back gradually and we have said that in a year’s time, it will be a different economy. It may be slow and painful but we would get there.

“As you can see, the capturing is going on smoothly; it takes an average of four minutes to capture the biometric of each Police officer, of which I think, it’s very good, and the Police is one of the biggest employers of labour on the federal payroll, getting them into biometric is a great achievement of this administration.

“The officers are happy because it means their salaries will be paid much earlier and directly into their account, and they will have better service from the federal government.

“So far, we have reduced what we pay monthly by N4. 5 billion, and it has been increasing everyday because those that are not supposed to be on the payroll are being removed, and we will keep on until we are sure that everybody receiving salary from the federal government is valid, and the only way we can do that is to pay salaries directly into their accounts and we can also verify by using BVN to ensure that no multiple payment, and that the people are alive, I think, it’s a very good thing.”

She said the Federal Government would continue the verification until it got to a logical conclusion, just as she assured Nigerians that those suspected would be ‎prosecuted by Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), saying: “Yes, we are in talks with the EFCC and they are going to start the prosecution very soon.

‎”Some do not exist but get into the payroll through a fraudulent way and some people are collecting salaries from two or three places. In fact, some people died and no one told us about their demise but through this exercise such kind of people will be discovered. But, when people are fraudulent, they should be prosecuted and if it is an error, may be you resign and you have written letters that the government should stop paying salaries, but they have refused. It will not be unfair to prosecute such people.

“The figure keeps changing, just as I have said, everyday we keep cleaning up the payroll and this has been going on for a long time. But, so far, it seems it is ab‎out 43,000 and it keeps on increasing and we will continue until we remove all because every time we remove those who shouldn’t be there, it creates room to employ those who are ready to work, and create money to spend on things the country need.”

 

RAZAQ AYINLA