The Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, said the government had collected more than 2.2 trillion naira ($11 billion) since consolidating revenue into a single account, which may help reduce its borrowing needs.
The Finance Ministry in Africa’s biggest oil producer will determine how much of the funds in the Treasury Single Account will be used to fund the 2016 budget and what will be left to pay for pending expenditure commitments, Adeosun said in a speech on Monday to state accountants in the capital, Abuja.
President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration is seeking to collect as much revenue as possible to fund a record budget of 6.1 trillion naira in the face of plunging oil prices. He has pledged to fight corruption to make more funds available for development projects to spur the economy.
The government is currently in talks for loans worth $3.5 billion from the World Bank and African Development Bank to help fund the budget deficit, estimated at 3 trillion naira.
The single account for revenue “strengthens accountability” even though it may slow down processes in expenditure, Ridle Markus, an Africa strategist at Barclays Plc’s South African unit, said in an interview from Johannesburg on Tuesday.
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