Treasury recovers part of N53.5b debt
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
A total N53.5 billion has been recovered by the treasury from N5.2 trillion owed by 5,000 debtors across 10 Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
Finance, Budget and National Planning (FBNP) Minister Zainab Ahmed disclosed this at the launch of Project Lighthouse Debt Analytics and Reporting Platform in Abuja.
She said the ministry is leveraging multilayer data mining to recover huge debts owed by MDAs, which were aggregated through consolidation in the past 12 to 18 months.
Project Lighthouse uses advanced data mining and analytics techniques to identify tax defaulters, establish their tax liabilities, and send notifications to appropriate authorities for necessary action.
The figures came from data aggregated from over 5,000 debtors across 10 MDAs, Ahmed explained.
Her words: “Working in collaboration with the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (OAGF), we have been able to recover N53.5 billion within the last 12-18 months, through the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS) as a recovery touch point.
“To consolidate on the effort of this project, a Debt Recovery Application has been built to be monitored by the new Debt Recovery Unit.
“The Unit will capitalise on the effort made by the project consultants to provide the government with up-to-date records into its credit status.
“Harmonising debt records across MDAs gives debtors access to a platform to view and offset debt in a seamless and secure manner as well as strengthen the institutional framework for enforcement and management of the Federal Debt Recovery plan.”
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Monthly update of debtors
Ahmed urged Federal Government-Owned Enterprises (FGOEs) and MDAs to update their list of debtors monthly in line with the debt recovery portfolio.
She said this would involve a framework for enforcement as well as recovery and management of the fiscal environment, according to reporting by The Nation.
One of the key economic policy objectives of the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) is improving overall federal revenue by targeting and increasing revenues from non-oil sources.
“ERGP 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 ….
“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,” she said.
Data mining and usage
Ahmed, however, expressed regret that despite Nigeria being in a technology and data-centric world, it has no culture of using data and information to guide formulation, implementation, and impact assessment of initiatives and policies.
“This 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 optimisation of these policies.
“In response to the aforementioned challenges, the Federal Ministry of Finance initiated ‘Project Lighthouse’.
“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).
“The data included tax records from tax authorities, company ownership and directors from Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), land records from land registries, Company directors’ information from NAICOM, AMCON, Non-structured data from online sources, Contractor payment records from GIFMIS, Remita, etc.
“All 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.
“This 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.
“A perfunctory review of perceived significant leakages in Government led the FMFBNP to issue a directive on September 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.”
Focus on comparative advantage
Ahmed commended President Muhammadu Buhari for his commitment to best value, improving fiscal transparency, and driving economic growth.
She said more efficient revenue mobilisation and blocking of leakages would provide more funds to deliver on national needs.
“A 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.
“I will be the first to admit that more efforts are needed in this direction.
“I 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.”