The Director, Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget, and National Planning (Special Projects), Victor Omata, disclosed this on Tuesday at a Zonal Sensitisation Workshop on the Federal Government Debt Recovery Drive through the Project Lighthouse programme in Asaba.
Omata, who was represented by the Deputy Director in the ministry, Mrs Bridget Molokwu, disclosed that N58bn had been recovered so far from 11 MDAs.
He said, “You will recall that one of the key economic policy objectives of the current administration, as contained in the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan, is improving Federal Government’s revenues by targeting and increasing revenues from non-oil revenue sources.
“Our policies and strategies are to leverage big data technology to help block revenue loopholes, identify new revenue opportunities, optimise existing revenue streams, especially non-oil revenue, and improve fiscal transparency.
“In actualising this goal, the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget, and National Planning initiated ‘Project Lighthouse,’ launched portfolio projects under the Strategic Revenue Growth Initiative.
“This initiative has enabled the aggregation of relevant economic and financial information from multiple agencies who hitherto did not share data.
“Data from Project Lighthouse revealed that many companies and individuals who owe government agencies have refused to honour their obligations but are still being paid, especially through government platforms such as GIFMIS and Treasury Single Account, due to a lack of visibility over these transactions.
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“It may interest you to note that the ministry, through the consolidation efforts of the Debt Analytics and Reporting Application, has been able to aggregate monumental debts of approximately N5.2tn
“Out of N5.2tn aggregation, N58bn has been recovered from over 7,000 debtors across 11 MDAs, and the debt aggregation effort is still ongoing.”
She explained that these debts were in the form of debt liabilities to the Federal Inland Revenue Service; refunds to the Government by companies that failed to deliver on projects for which payment had been made.
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