Does the FGN really have an idle 3 trillion naira in the TSA?

Over the last few months, there have been multiple statements regarding the funds saved/recovered/collected by Nigeria via the newly adopted Treasury Single Account (TSA).

While the latest statements say the figure is now above 3 trillion Naira, I understand that a portion of the money in the Treasury Single Account *does not* belong to the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN).

In several FGN entities, there are ongoing projects that are funded (fully or in part) by (local and foreign) private partner organizations and foreign governments. Several of such projects had accounts domiciled in commercial banks and their funds were indiscriminately “mopped up” into the TSA. Those projects are now cash-strapped and will have to go through a long and painful process of retrieving their funds. The really unfortunate ones will fail for reasons like not being able to buy diesel for their generators to keep supplies at the right temperature, etc.

There are also cases of FGN entities that were left with less money than it takes to run their daily operations. How do they meet the expectations of the communities they are supposed to service in a time that we would all like to see things become more efficient? All these must be contributing factors to the snail’s pace that Nigeria seems to be moving at.

The TSA transfers may have been innocent errors but when you recover 500x Naira from a non-revenue-generating entity that only receives 5x Naira from you each year, you should immediately know that someone else’s money is in that pot. Such errors should have been corrected immediately!

While it is good to know that we now have a handle on Nigeria’s financial status, we should be careful not to cripple the country due to excessive controls.

I also really hope that the Treasury managers are putting the money to good use so that it grows for the country the way it was previously growing for personal benefit. It would be a shame if the Central Bank is just keeping all that money buried in a pot.