The recent package of an expansionary budget of N6 trillion in 2016 brings the ingenuity of the London-trained accountant to public acclaim, writes SAM NWOKORO.
In every career, there are high points and lows. And there are also peak points as much as there are start-up points. It is the ability and competence one brings to his/hercareer that determine their progress in that chosen career.
It takes berthing at the heavyweight category in boxing or wrestling for one to reach the apex of the tournament. It takes flying the wide big body airliner for a pilot to be celebrated as a Grade A pilot. It also takes reading and researching up to the professorial level for the academic to be inaugurated into the Hall of Letters. In the same manner, it takes managing public finance at the level of a cabinet minister for one to be crowned the leader in that career path. In this wise, no matter how cerebral the master of numbers can be rated as an accountant, if he/she has not managed public accounts such as sovereign fiscal plans, he/she has not diffused his/her expertise in prudence and management to peoples and institutions as a leader.
But in all these, the most sought after quality is integrity. Yes integrity counts. No matter the lure to cut corners or run unethical practice for immediate pecuniary benefits, at the end of the day, people reckon and endorse the one with integrity, who never allowed the greed and traps of easy gains to sabotage goals and objectives, and in the process mar one’s career goals.
Big ideas in Budget 2016
For effect, Mrs, Kemi Adeosun has, much like her predecessors who managed Nigeria’s contorted fiscal structure amid its multiple crises, demonstrated that Nigeria is never short of big minds and bold ideas in addressing her multifaceted socio-economic challenges. She has just propounded a fiscal plan for 2016, that is talking about Nigeria’s budget 2016. She may not be the only one that prepared it, nor the only public officer to implement it, but as Finance Minister who would also be involved in coordinating intervention mechanisms as the fiscal plan affects the various public and private sector operators, Mrs. Adeosun has a job in her hands.
However, there is this publicly expressed confidence in her that she would deliver to Buhari’s government the expected goals of Budget 2016.
In the 2016 budget, the government plans to spend some N6 trillion in what it dubbed “expansionary budget” to reflate the economy. A novel budget model called “zero budgeting” has also been introduced into Nigeria’s fiscal administration. Zero budgeting envisages expenditure pattern by government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) whereby only programmes and projects earmarked for 2016 only are funded within the 2016 appropriations: no backward, no forward.
There is no doubt that the essence of the zero budgeting option was a policy of the ruling party to gauge the incidence of “unspent fund”, an anomaly that has been the lot of public expenditure by ministries and departments since 1999, and which has provided many public servants conduit to siphon public funds.
Behind an expansionary budget
Nigeria’s new Finance Minister would be managing a N7 trillion public finance plan that is currently the largest in Nigeria’s history.
According to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, who spoke to the press early last month: “Government might consider raising spending in 2016 by 56 per cent to as much as N7 trillion up from 4.49 trillion spending plan for 2015.”
The Minister of Finance will be implementing a budget which experts have feared faces challenging landmines. Much money is going to be borrowed to balance it, almost about $35 billion according to top government functionaries. Oil prices are still not showing optimistic signs of improvement; the reason government pegged oil price for the budget at $38 per barrel. Much is expected from non-oil sectors that are still plagued by expensive business environment. Much hope is placed on private sector fund owners at a time implementation of the Treasury Single Account (TSA) has removed much money from commercial banks. So, how do the private sector partners hope to meet up with business obligations to projects they are partnering to execute?
It is not all. Other challenges still stare the Finance Minister in the face as she supervises implementation of this expansionary budget: it is an ambitious budget that dreams to make everyone happy, and have a sense of belonging and recognition. It promises to feed school children in the country every day at a cost yet to be adequately calculated and also unemployed graduates N5,000 monthly.
With unreliable data from Nigeria’s numerical institutions such as the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), National Population Commission (NPC) and even our contorted multi-ethnic compositions and the inherent acquisitive greed and manipulations that go with it, executing this aspect of the budget in 2016 would require much more than how to count money and sign cheques. It is a task that can easily make a moron out of an accomplished prudent technocrat and thrifty custodian as Adeosun, judging by her antecedents.
To confirm the huge tasks before Adeosun, Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udo Udoma, disclosed recently that the funds for the budget would be sourced from non-oil sector revenues and restriction on government spending.
“We will get the funding from two sources. We are looking at increasing our non-oil revenues. We are looking at trying to get more money from the various government agencies, policing their collection and trying to get more money from them. We will also be looking at industrialisation, agriculture, entrepreneurship, human capital development, creating an enabling ambience for SMEs in order to create jobs,” he said.
These shows clearly that the woman would be working at a faster pace than she used to – for now her portfolio and responsibilities are larger than while she was Commissioner in Ogun State.
Obviously managing an expansionary budget as this with all the taunts of insecurity from places of murmuring will not be easy. She can only pray she does enter the very troubling periods of the recent past when insecurity brought by Boko Haram and their sponsors made nonsense of all the good intentions of the Goodluck Jonathan and the Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala management team.
The E-Unit
In line with the current administration’s resolve to institute reform policies that will ensure effective management of the nation’s economy and reduce cost of governance, President Buhari approved the establishment of an Efficiency Unit (E-Unit) in the Federal Ministry of Finance. The principal objective of the unit is to ensure that all government expenditure is necessary and represents the best possible value for money.
Available records have confirmed that presently, the nation’s recurrent expenditure completely dwarfs capital expenditure by a ratio of 84:16. This includes non-wage related overhead expenditure such as travel costs, entertainment, events, printing, IT consumables, stationeries etc. As at September 2015, the entire capital expenditure was just N194 billion while overhead expenditure was N272 billion. This scenario is considered unsustainable and at variance with the current administration’s resolve to reform the economy and reduce the cost of governance.
While inaugurating the Steering Committee for the proper take-off of the unit in Abuja recently, Mrs. Adeosun explained that the unit would undertake programmed reviews of all government overhead expenditure with a view to reducing wastage, promoting efficiency and ensuring quantifiable savings for the country. Specifically, she said it would work across all Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to identify and eliminate wasteful spending, duplication and other inefficiencies; identify best practices in procurement and financial management and share such knowledge to ensure its adoption.
“Findings of the Efficiency Unit will always be formally communicated accordingly and will be enforced through establishment of expenditure guidelines, undertaking follow-up reviews, spot checks and other measures that will ultimately checkmate wastages across all areas of federal government expenditure”.
The newly inaugurated Steering Committee, to be chaired by the Finance Minister, has members drawn from both public and private sector. The Project Leader is Ms Patience Oniha, a highly experienced banker and Chartered Accountant, with 30 years’ experience in financial sector. She had worked with Ecobank Nigeria, Standard Chartered Bank, KPMG and is currently a Director in the Debt Management Office (DMO).
Other members of the committee include Head of Service of the Federation, Accountant-General of the Federation, Auditor-General of the Federation and Director, Budget Office of the Federation. Members drawn from the private sector include Kabir Mohammed, former Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) President; Kunle Elebute, (Partner KPMG) and Ms Seyi Kumapayi, Chief Financial Officer, Access Bank. Members of the committee have agreed to donate their time without fee as their contribution to making government more efficient.
Good works as commissioner
The good works of Mrs. Adeosun while Commissioner for Finance in Ogun State was well recognised and remembered, which was why she was picked as minister. Under her, Ogun State embarked and completed in record time many landmark projects without contractors complaining. The cargo airport projects, the new fly-overs that dot Abeokuta, the newly emerged industrial areas, and the sanity she brought in the land acquisition methods in the state were not forgotten.
She is still the same woman, and public expectation is that she understands the nature of the economy. It is like she is much more in touch with the grassroots, though she was bred and brought up in the English channels.
One endearing endorsement of her appointment and confirmation as a Finance Minister came from one influential women group leader, Bilkisu Abdullahi of Young Women in Politics. She said: “The nomination of Adeosun, the only woman Commissioner for Finance in Nigeria, shows that President (Muhammadu) Buhari has the intention of rising above primordial sentiments.”
Adeosun, an Economics graduate and a member of the Chartered Institute of Accountants, England and Wales as well as Nigeria, turned around the fortunes of the economy of Ogun State in just four years. It was under her watch that despite the dwindling revenue of the state from the Federation Account, the state was able to embark on many gigantic projects. Her courageous intervention through the home ownership programme in ensuring that obtaining C of O by land allotees was without encumbrance as was the case before. Her efforts to stabilise the debt profile in the state stood her out as a very experienced fund manager.
Public service
Mrs. Adeosun was born March 1967 and educated in London. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of East London and post-graduate diploma in Public Finance Management from the University of London.
According to records, she also had a stint with British Telecoms Company in London and at various times with some finance consulting companies. She worked most recently with PriceWaterHouse Coopers (PWC) between 2000 and 2002.
With her wealth of experience, Nigerians expect she would deliver.
