The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, on Wednesday commissioned a fire substation built for the Treasury House which houses the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation. Speaking at the event, the Minister extolled the Accountant-General of the Federation, Mr Idris Ahmed, for building the facility which will help battle fire incidents in the building and its environs. She was also pleased that 35 firemen have been posted to man the facility by the Comptroller-General of the Fire Service. According to her, “the Treasury House is the key driver of the ongoing Public Financial Management Reforms in line with the desire of the Federal Government to bring the nation up to speed with other leading world economies. “In carrying out this enormous task, ...
The Naira yesterday weakened to the lowest in over three years in the parallel market due to increased demand for dollars amid foreign-currency shortages. The local currency depreciated to N495 to a dollar yesterday, lowest since February 23, 2017, widening the gap with the official rate of N379.5 to over 30 per cent. The currency traded in the interbank market at 389.74 as of 4:54p.m. in Lagos. Agency reports quoted traders as alleging a groundswell of diversion of dollars, a development which heightened scarcity of the green back in the parallel market this week. There is a diversion of inflows away from official channels to the parallel market due to the gap in rates, Murega Mungai, trading desk manager for Aza Finance said in a note Thursday. The market spread has created arbitrage opp...
The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, has said the total public debts of Nigeria would hit N38trn by December 2021. The Minister stated this on Tuesday, in her presentation to the Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debts. The Minister said, ”The total public debt stock comprising the External and Homes debts of the Federal and state governments and the Federal Capital Territory stood at N31.01trn (USD85.90 billion) as at June 30, 2020. “It is projected, based on existing approval, to rise to N32.51 trillion by December 31, 2020 and N38.68 trillion by December 31,2021.” She attributed reasons for numerous abandoned road projects across the country to poor funds releases occasioned by dwindling revenue. She explained that the current Sukuk fund is N162bn for...
The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, on Saturday, said the federal government has created a N25bn youth fund as part of efforts to address the dissatisfaction of #EndSARS protesters and other youth-related restiveness in the country. The minister made this known at a stakeholders’ meeting with the Deputy Governor of Kaduna State, Dr Hadiza Balarabe, in Kaduna on Saturday. According to Ahmed, the meeting was in line with the directive of President Muhammadu Buhari to ministers and governors to dialogue with stakeholders and the youths with a view to addressing their agitations. The minister, who explained that the youth fund would be increased to N75bn within a period of three years, explained that the fund aims to support youths to actualise their entreprene...
In a bid to cushion the effect of continued dwindling oil revenue, the Federal government says it is putting in place an Integrated Revenue Monitoring System in place to help the monitoring of the revenues of the Federal Government Owned Entities (FGOEs) online real-time to improve transparency and accountability. The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, said this at the orientation program for Directors of Revenue Tuesday in Abuja. She said the federal government is putting robust policies in place to maximize its non-oil revenue as it is increasingly concerned with the dwindling profile of Revenue, a trend she said has to be quickly arrested particularly with Key revenue generating agencies of the Government. The minister noted that with revenue dwindling...