Budget: How We Shared N753.663bn To Ministries- Adeosun

Posted on November 2, 2016 by Staff Reporter

Finance Minister, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, yesterday gave details on how the 2016 budget was being implemented, revealing that N753,663,667,464 has so far been shared to various ministries being capital allocation as at October 31.
A tabulated presentation to journalists showed that the Power Ministry got the lion’s share of the allocation with N209,246,760,165, while the Petroleum Ministry received the least allocation of N2,413,847,044, even as Nigerians continue to lament the poor power supply over the last 15 months.
This was as the Defence Ministry was allocated N69,512,363,730 while Transport Ministry has so far received N30,540,042,428. According to the breakdown of expenditures, Agriculture got N29,578,929,050, Water Resources Ministry got N25,201,857,951 and the Interior Ministry has so far received N21,210,059,596. Health Ministry got N18,472,539,524 and N16,743,672,981 went to the Education Ministry while Niger Delta Ministry got a slice of N8,161,196,486.
Science and Technology Ministry has so far received N6,681,349,721 and Mines and Steel got N3,360,000,000. Petroleum Ministry got N2,413,847,044, while others cumulatively received N312,511,048,789.
Recall that the Appropriation Bill 2016 seeks to authorise the issue from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation the total sum of N6,077,680,000,000.
Of the figure, N351,370,000,000 is for Statutory Transfers, N1,475,320,000,000 is for Debt Service while N2,648,600,000,000 is for Recurrent (Non-Debt) Expenditure.
The sum of N1,845,540,000,000 inclusive of N157,150,000,000 Capital Expenditure in Statutory Transfers and N86,000,000,000 as Interest on Capitalised Loans, is for contribution to the Development Fund for Capital Expenditure for the year ending on December 31, 2016.

Credit:

http://sunnewsonline.com/budget-how-we-shared-n753-663bn-to-ministries-adeosun/

Buhari May Cut Fashola’s Ministry To Give Way For Kachikwu

Posted on September 20, 2016 by Staff Reporter

As President Muhammadu Buhari land in the United States of America for the United Nations Assembly summit, a new report has revealed details of a possible ministerial re-shuffling by the presidency.

As Nigerians await the alleged ministerial reshuffling from the presidency, SaharaReporters in a new post on their official Twitter page, has revealed that Babatunde Fashola’s ministry of Works, Power and Housing’s three portfolios might be reduced to give way to Ibe Kachikwu, the minister of state for Petroleum who will now have a full portfolio to himself.

‘Why Buhari Put Three Ministries Under Me’ – Fashola

Posted on August 11, 2016 by Staff Reporter

Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, has spoken of the decision of President Muhammadu Buhari to merge the Ministries of Power, Works and Housing.

Fashola said this at a ‘Town Hall Meeting and Policy Dialogue for Good Governance’ organised by the Alumni Association of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (AANI).

A statement issued by his media aide, Mr. Hakeem Bello, yesterday in Abuja stated that the minister had in response to a question on the challenges he has running three ministries, said he welcomed the responsibility as it was a cost saving initiative by the president.

“About whether I can cope with three ministries or not, on one hand, we have spoken of the high cost of running government and in trying to mitigate or reduce that cost, Mr. President, in his wisdom decided to merge the three ministries together,” Fashola said.

“Now, two of those ministries have had a natural relationship over years. They were either works and housing or land, works and housing. In adding power to it, let us also remember that the work left in lower is just to complete the privatisation and to complete the transmission grid.

“The distribution is now in the hands of companies. All of the work that NEPA used to do distributing power is now in the hands of 11 companies. All of the work that NEPA used to do generating power is now in the hands of six companies.

“Now, there is an agency called NERC (Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission) created by law made by people you and I elected. That is the regulator of the power sector now, in getting licenses issued and so on and so forth and a statutory company called NBET (Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc). So, all of these institutions are taking positions and evolving.

“So, my work really there is supervisory and directional. And that is why you will see that in the ministry of works and in the ministry of housing where we have over 4,000 personnel in each ministry, the ministry of power has barely 800 staff now and the numbers are reducing as traction is being gained.

“So, it is no longer a government driven sector; it is now a government regulated sector driven by the private sector”, he added.

Fashola added that if anyone has any issue about his job, “I think you should complain to Mr. President. For me it is a privilege to serve my country in whatever capacities I am designated to do so.”

Buhari Confirms Plan To Reduce Ministries

Posted on October 5, 2015 by Staff Reporter

As part of measures to reduce redundancy in public service, President Muhammadu Buhari is working on reducing the number of federal ministries which currently stands at about 28. He intends to merge those with similar functions.

Also, state-owned enterprises dubiously allocated to friends or relations under the guise of privatization are to be reviewed and reclaimed by the Federal Government while those that went through transparent and credible processes are to be retained by their investors.

However, to abide by the provisions of the Nigerian Constitution that each state shall be represented by a minister at the federal cabinet, the President will still recommend 36 ministerial nominees to the Nigerian Senate for consideration.

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo revealed these plans of the Buhari-government in a chat with media organizations in Abuja at the weekend.

Read More: ngrguardiannews

No Ministry, Department Exempted From Treasury Single Account – Emefiele

Posted on September 22, 2015 by Staff Reporter

No government ministry, department or agency had been exempted from the recent directive on the Treasury Single Account policy introduced by the Federal Government, the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, governor, Godwin Emefiele, has said.

The governor, who was speaking in Abuja on Tuesday on the outcome of the two-day Monetary Policy Committee meeting, said so far he was not aware of any other directive countering the previous instruction to all government agencies to remit all revenues to the TSA account with the CBN.

“As at today, the CBN has not received any memo from any quarters exempting any organisation from the directive on TSA”, the CBN governor said. “Let me urge all government agencies to ensure that they complied fully with the directive to ensure its success.”

He said the impact of the TSA policy on the economy so far showed that the amount of funds moved from the commercial banks to the CBN since the policy commenced about a weeks ago had been moderate, contrary to reports that it had triggered liquidity squeeze.

Although he acknowledged that there have been a lot of speculation in the market, he said as an on-going exercise, the impact of the policy would continue to grow as time goes.

“The data that the committee (Monetary Policy Committee) reviewed between yesterday and today showed that liquidity ratio in the banks have decreased moderately.

“That is why the committee came up with the conclusion that the impact of the movement of funds from the CBN on liquidity is sort of moderate.

“The liquidity ratio showed that Nigerian banks are safe,” he said.

Mr. Emefiele said the CBN would continue to monitor the liquidity of the banks to make sure that they did not slide into difficult terrain.

As widely expected before the meeting, Mr. Emefiele said the meeting had resolved to retain the lending rate by banks, otherwise known as Monetary Policy Rate, MPR at 13 per cent, while the Cash Reserve Ratio, CRR on private and public sector deposits was reduced from 31 per cent to 25 per cent.

The other resolution at the meeting was retaining the symmetric corridor of +/- 200 basis points around the MPR, while liquidity ratio was put at 20 per cent as part of efforts to tighten liquidity condition in the banking sector to cushion the impact of the TSA policy.

Source – Premium times

State Reduces Ministries From 23 To 14

Posted on September 8, 2015 by Staff Reporter

The long-awaited list of commissioners to be presented to the Niger State House of Assembly by Governor Abubakar Sani Bello is ready and ministries are to be reduced from 23 to 14, investigations have revealed.

It was gathered that Governor Bello has already directed the Office of the Secretary to the State Government to issue a circular on the reduction of ministries in preparation for the submission of the list of commissioners to the State Assembly.

It was learnt that the list of the commissioners is ready and will soon be transmitted to the State Assembly for the consideration of the legislators.

Read More: leadership

Buhari Orders Federal Ministries, Agencies To Open Treasury Single Account

Posted on August 10, 2015 by Staff Reporter

Press statement from the presidency…

President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered each and every Federal Government Ministry, Department or Agency to start paying into a Treasury Single Account (TSA) for all government revenues, incomes and other receipts. According to the directive, this measure is specifically to promote transparency and facilitate compliance with sections 80 and 162 of the 1999 Constitution.

Henceforth, according to a statement by Laolu Akande, the Senior Special Assistant to the Vice President on? Media and Publicity, all receipts due to the Federal Government or any of its agencies must be paid into TSA or designated accounts maintained and operated in the Central Bank of
Nigeria (CBN), except otherwise expressly approved.
A TSA is a unified structure of government bank accounts enabling consolidation and optimal utilization of government cash resources. It is a bank account or a set of linked bank accounts through which the government transacts all its receipts and payments and gets a consolidated view of its cash position at any given time.
This presidential directive would end the previous public accounting situation of several fragmented accounts for government revenues, incomes and receipts, which in the recent past has meant the loss or leakages of legitimate income meant for the federation account.
It would be recalled that President Muhammadu Buhari had earlier promised state governors at the inaugural meeting of the National Economic Council, NEC, in June, that all revenues prescribed for lodgement into the federation account will be treated as such under his watch and that he will ensure strict compliance with all relevant laws on accounting, allocation and disbursement.
Since then the presidency has worked with relevant agencies of the federal government to evolve this policy directive.
This directive applies to fully funded organs of government like the Ministries, Departments, Agencies and Foreign Missions, as well as the partially funded ones, like Teaching Hospitals, Medical Centres, Federal Tertiary Institutions, etc.
Agencies like the CBN, SEC, CAC, NPA, NCC, FAAN, NCAA, NIMASA, NDIC, NSC, NNPC, FIRS, NCS, MMSD, DPR are also affected.
For any agency that is fully or partially self-funding, Sub-Accounts linked to TSA are to be maintained at CBN and the accounting system will be configured to allow them access to funds based on their approved budgetary provisions.
?
‘Laolu Akande
Senior Special Assistant to the Vice President
(Media & Publicity)
August 9, 2015

President Buhari Insists On Slashing Number Of Ministries, Agencies

Posted on August 3, 2015 by Staff Reporter

President Muhammadu Buhari has said his administration was seriously looking for ways of cutting down the cost of governance by reducing the number of ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).

The president, who stated this at the weekend when he met with the Nigerian community in Benin Republic, assured, however, that in cutting down the number of MDas, he would not take the interest of Nigerians, including those living in Diaspora, for granted.

He also assured Nigerians living in Diaspora that his administration would consider their requests of setting up of consular offices where necessary to enable the embassies coordinate and respond to their urgent needs in an expeditious manner.

President Buhari, who was in Benin Republic on a one-day visit and to attend the country’s 55th independence anniversary, met with Nigerians living in the country immediately after he was hosted to a launch by the country’s president, Boni Yayi.

Responding to requests made by the Nigerian community in Benin Republic through the Nigerian Ambassador, Dr. Lawrence Obisakin, he assured that the government would next year look at the possibility of creating more consular offices in Benin Republic.

Responding to requests for two more consulates in Benin Republic to complement the Nigerian embassy, Buhari noted that even though the federal government was trying to whittle down the number of MDAs, he would include their request in next year’s budget.

He said, “I think I will direct your ambassador to make the request to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs so that by the time we are doing the next budget, it would be included.

“Although we are trying to cut down on the number of ministries, the morale of Nigerians in Diaspora must be considered. This is because we are so many. We are aggressive whether in business or other facets of life. So, we as a government will do everything possible to look after Nigerians wherever they are.”