The Federal Government of Nigeria has recovered N53.5 billion out of N5.2 trillion from the debt owed its by Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, made the statement at the formal launch of Project Lighthouse Debt Analytics and Reporting Platform in Abuja on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She said her ministry was leveraging a multilayer data mining effort to recover huge debts owed the Federal Government by various Ministries MDAs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ahmed said through the consolidation efforts of the project, the government had been able to aggregate monumental debts of approximately N5.2 trillion owed by MDAs, out of which N53.5 billion had been recovered in the last 12-18 months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She said the Project Lighthouse is an initiative which entails using advanced data mining and analytics techniques to identify tax defaulters, establish their tax liabilities and send notifications to appropriate authorities for necessary actions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ahmed said that the figures came up from data aggregated from over 5,000 debtors across 10 MDAs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWorking in collaboration with the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF), we have been able to recover the sum of N53.5 billion within the last 12-18 months, through the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS) as a recovery touch point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTo consolidate on the current effort of this project, a Debt Recovery Application has been built to be monitored by the new Debt Recovery Unit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe Debt Recovery Unit will capitalise on the effort made by the project consultants to provide the government with up-to-date records into its credit status.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBy harmonising debt records across all MDAs within the country, give debtors access to a platform to view and offset debt in a seamless and secured manner as well as strengthen the institutional framework for enforcement and management of the Federal Debt Recovery plan,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The minister tasked all Federal Government-Owned Enterprises (FGOEs) and MDAs to update their list of debtors on a month-on-month basis in line with the Project Lighthouse debt recovery portfolio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ahmed said that this would also encompass the development of an institutional framework for enforcement, recovery and management of the fiscal environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She said that one of the key economic policy objectives of the current administration, as contained in the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP), was improving overall Federal Government revenues by targeting and increasing revenues from non-oil revenue sources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cERGP also aims, among other goals, to increase the tax base by drastically increasing the Company Income Tax and Value Added Tax compliance, bringing additional taxpayers into the tax net, and increase Tax to GDP ratio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou will recall that in the last few months, major steps have been taken to improve the fiscal position of Government, one of such steps is the implementation of quite a number of portfolio initiatives under the Strategic Revenue Growth Initiatives (SRGI), which some of you have been participating in,\u201d Ahmed said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The minister, however, regretted that in spite of being in a technology and data-centric world, Nigeria had no culture of using data and information to guide the formulation, implementation and impact assessment of its initiatives and policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis modus operandi presents a number of challenges, firstly, our policies are not usually empirically based. Second, we are not able to effectively track the implementation and impact of these policies, initiatives, programmes and mandate. Third, we lack data to help guide the revision or optimization of these policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn response to the aforementioned challenges, the Federal Ministry of Finance initiated \u201cProject Lighthouse\u201d. In July 2017 during the first Phase of Project Lighthouse, data was mined from multiple sources to support the implementation of the Voluntary Assets and Income Declaration Scheme (VAIDS).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe data included tax records from tax authorities, company ownership and directors from Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), land records from land registries, Company directors\u2019 information from NAICOM, AMCON, Non-structured data from online sources, Contractor payment records from GIFMIS, Remita, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAll these data helped us to identify and better profile individuals and corporate taxpayers, it also helped to identify tax defaulters and potential beneficiaries of VAIDS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis exercise raised awareness about VAIDS, it increased the level of responses we got, helped us to know more about taxpayers, their assets and income sources that were hitherto unknown to government and tax authorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cA perfunctory review of perceived significant leakages in Government led the FMFBNP to issue a directive on Sept. 26, 2019, to all government agencies in a bid to aggregate all government debts across all MDAs with a view to having a single window on the credit profile of government,\u201d Ahmed said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The minister also commended President Muhammadu Buhari for his commitment to best value, improving fiscal transparency and driving the country\u2019s growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She said that more efficient revenue mobilisation and blocking of leakages would provide more funds to deliver on the needs of the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cA growing economy, focusing on the areas where we have comparative advantage, with a strong focus on infrastructure and improved ease of doing business, is a clear recipe for growth, profit and progress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI will be the first to admit that more efforts are needed in this direction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI am convinced that the structures this administration has put in place will in no distant time revolutionise fiscal policy in the country and anchor a robust economic growth,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Chairman, Carter Consulting, Mrs Nana Mede, said that the platform was to aggregate all debtors and people who are indebted to the government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She therefore said that with the level of progress seen so far, more supports were needed from the MDAs.<\/p>\n\n\n
The Federal Government of Nigeria has recovered N53.5 billion out of N5.2 trillion from the debt owed its by Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs). The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, made the statement at the formal launch of Project Lighthouse Debt Analytics and Reporting Platform in Abuja on Monday. She […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5140,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[125],"tags":[206],"class_list":["post-41849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance-money","tag-debt","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author",""],"yoast_head":"\n