Uche Usim, Abuja
A delegation of The Gambia Ministry of Finance and Economic Matters, the Central Bank and the country’s Accountant-General, on Monday, began a two-week strategic training in Abuja towards understudying the successful implementation of the Treasury Single Account (TSA) in Nigeria.
Nigeria has become a global reference point for the successful implementation of the TSA programme, even as government said it currently saves over N24.7 billion monthly while transaction value has hit N30 trillion.
Speaking at the event, the Minister of Finance, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, said the visit was most welcome as both countries enjoy a very strong bond on various fronts.
She said: “TSA has helped us track government’s funds. The funds are pooled and helps us balance our ways and means when we have a recourse to it.
“I urge the Gambian delegation to take advantage of this visit. Take as much information as you possibly can”, she said.
She hinted that Nigeria was considering another option of capturing all accruals by foreign missions into a single account as it was presently having challenges including them in the TSA arrangement.
“One of the challenges facing the full implementation of the TSA in Nigeria is how to bring in revenue generated by foreign missions usually in different currencies into the TSA.
“To address this challenge, the government is looking at a different options to interface with TSA for foreign missions.
“With the introduction of TSA, balances in government account are regularly reconciled.
“So, I urge you all to take advantage of the two weeks study stay in Nigeria to visit some states in the country that have implemented a different variant of the TSA from that of the Federal Government.
Also speaking at the meeting, the Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF) who was represented by the Director, Funds, Mr. Mohammed Usman said The Gambians have a lot to learn from Nigeria’s public finance management initiatives.
“Not just TSA. We also have various reforms introduced into public accounting process like the International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS), the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS) which is an IT based system for budget planning, the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) is an information Communications Technology (ICT) project, among others.”