Nigeria distributed the sum of N8.496 trillion to its three tiers of government in 2018, some N1.807 trillion (27.01%) higher than the N6.689 trillion shared in 2017.
This, according to some data released on Thursday by the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF) includes 13% derivation paid to oil producing states and cost of collection to all the revenue generating agencies.
Also, Value Added Tax (VAT) realized and distributed to three tiers of government in 2018 was N1.076 trillion as against N972.348 billion realized the previous year.
The statistics on the performance of the federal government finances and the OAGF was reeled out when the Head of Service of the federation, Winifred Ohio-Ita paid a peer review visit to the Accountant General of the Federation (AGF), Ahmed Idris and his team in Abuja.
The numbers also show that the federal government saves over N45 monthly in interest on ways and means advances, a method through which the Central Bank of Nigeria lends to government to make up for its revenue shortfall.
Also the government generated some N50bn revenue from funds mopped from commercial banks through its Treasury Single Account (TSA).
Figures indicate TSA has enabled government aggregate over N10 trillion cash collection through the scheme fully launched since 2015 to help government better manage its financial resources.
As contained in a OAGF peer review document seen by BusinessDay, the federal government has so far enrolled some 235,858 of its civil servants under the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) and saved N98.34 billion through the process as at June, 2019.
Meanwhile, revenue and investment department of the OAGF was able to analyze and reconstruct operating statement of FGOEs which revealed that as at December 2017, over N1.656 trillion was outstanding against the various organization and successfully monitored government portfolio of investments in both local and external companies.
The OAGF said it has successfully managed huge loan portfolio for the FGN and state governments, thereby keeping track of of the repayment obligation of their indebtedness.
Also, working in ollaboration with the Central Bank of Nigeria, the OAGF has commenced the process of remitting monthly allocation to the three tiers of government online real time, to help curb delays experienced in the former manual system.
At the meeting, the AGF Ahmed Idris called the peer review mechanism a panacea to inefficiency in service delivery across all the Ministries, Departments and Agencies, with a view to actualizing government policies and programme.
In his welcome address, he told the Head of Service and her team that the OAGF is now fully digitalized, having also earned a lot of support from several entities through Corporate Social Responsibility.
In her response, Oyo-Ita commended progress by the OAGF to ensure government’s lean resources are effectively managed and conserved, pointing out that the innovative ideas and solutions were impressive.
She was optimistic that the government would be able to save even more when all its workers are brought under the IPPIS.
Onyinye Nwachukwu, Abuja
