Nigeria: Accountant-General Reveals Account Balance of TSA

The Accountant-General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris, on Thursday stated that the Nigerian government has collected more than 2.7 trillion naira ($13.57 billion) in its Treasury Single Account (TSA), Reuters reports.
"TSA has helped government to have a firm and full control of its resources, blocking leakages, helping it to reduce the cost of borrowing and to monitor spending," Idris said in a statement issued by his office.
The statement however did not outline the period over which the 2.7 trillion naira was collected, and the accountant-general's spokesman could not be reached to clarify this. This follows FG's recent efforts to shore up revenue through tax collection.
Idris had said that the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) was working towards ensuring that all revenue accruable to the government was recovered especially in the current era of diversification from crude oil. He added that FG is also working to weed out ghost workers on its payroll.
“We are now going ahead to use Bank Verification Number (BVN) recently introduced by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to clarify and to ascertain names of those benefitting salary from the Federal Government," he said.
Last year, President Muhammadu Buhari ordered the merger of state accounts into one account at the central bank to reduce corruption and a practice where the government borrowed back its own funds from lenders at an interest.
In February, Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun said the account contained 2.2 trillion naira, and the figures compare with a record 6.06 trillion naira budget planned by Buhari for the year to March 2017 to stimulate the economy.