By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Nigeria’s President, Bola Tinubu has delisted the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Administration from the Treasury Single Account (TSA), giving the territory more control over its finances.
TSA refers to a public accounting system using a single account, or a set of linked accounts by the government to ensure all revenue receipts and payments are done through a Consolidated Revenue Account (CRA) at the Central Bank of Nigeria.
The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) has its Minister, Nyesom Wike a former Governor of Rivers state and a member of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Additionally, the President also approved the establishment of the Civil Service Commission (CSC) in the FCT Administration.
Wike at a press conference on Friday in Abuja while also announcing the approval of mandate secretariat for women affairs, said the TSA has made it difficult for the FCTA to access funding to carry out projects, and the capital city has consequently been littered with too many abandoned projects for decades.
He also said pulling out from the TSA, would enable the Administration to access funding in the form of loans from commercial banks to carry out major infrastructural projects, which it has hitherto been unable to do over concerns of repayment.
“The city not growing as it should, you have projects littered up and down. Projects are awarded without financial backup. So many projects as far back as 2002, What is responsible? The government joined the single treasury account, where all accounts will be in the central bank.
“Now the central bank cannot give us loans, even the IGR is spent as it comes, you cannot tangibly do anything with it. so I said to Mr. Presidnet, if you want FCT to carry out the infrastructural projects then the best is that we must pull out”, the minister said.
While applauding the president for what he termed a bold move that many leaders are afraid to take, said the FCTA will embark on massive infrastructural projects with remarkable results in one year.
“You’ll see from next year, it will be projects upon projects in FCT. What you saw in Port-Harcourt will be a small thing. So those crying of insecurity, no light, and no road will be a thing of the past. You will see the road and you will run”, Wike told the news conference.
