Finance Ministry Recovers N57 Billion Debt From MDAs

Wale Edun, Minister of Finance

ACCORDING to the Federal Ministry of Finance, the N5.2 trillion in debts that Ministries, Departments, and Agencies, or MDAS, owed the Federal Government were settled for more than N57 billion.

This was announced in Enugu on Tuesday, April 23, at a one-day workshop on the Federal Government Debt Recovery Drive under the Project Lighthouse Program for the South-East zone, by Aisha Omar, Director of Special Projects, Federal Ministry of Finance.

Omar disclosed that information compiled from more than 5,000 debtors across more than 93 MDAS was what initially brought attention to the debts. Omar was represented by Bridget Molokwu, the ministry's deputy director of special projects.

She asserted that more recovery had been made, but she was unable to offer the supporting evidence.

She added that the debts were liabilities to the Federal Inland Revenue Service, or FIRS, and that the ministry could account for the official sum of N57 billion.

According to Molokwu, the ministry also got reimbursements from businesses that didn't finish the tasks for which they had been paid.

She listed unpaid debts owed to the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate by insurance companies, judgment debt in favor of the government, and credit facilities awarded to corporations and individuals by the Bank of Industry and Bank of Agriculture as additional refunds.

“Generally, revenue loopholes have been aided by poor information sharing and enforcement.

“It may interest you to note that the ministry, through the consolidation efforts of the Debt Analytics and Reporting Application, has been able to aggregate monumental debts of approximately N5.2 trillion.

“The debt aggregation effort is still ongoing. Currently, approximately N57 billion has been recovered so far from this. amount, due to concerted efforts on the part of stakeholders and the Federal Government," she said.

She continued by saying that information from Project Lighthouse showed that a large number of businesses and people who owed the government money but would not fulfill their commitments were still getting paid.

She said that because there was no visibility over these transactions, this was done through government portals like GIFMIS and Treasury Single Account.

She claimed that in order to achieve the debt recovery objective, the Federal Ministry of Finance launched “Project Lighthouse," which allowed for the collection of pertinent financial and economic data from several organizations that had not previously shared information.