New Telegraph

Budget: FG mulls re-introduction of cash management

The Federal Government has concluded arrangement to re- introduce cash management function into fiscal budget management, Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, has hinted . The adoption of cash management implies that budget monitoring and evaluation outcome will determine fund releases on a real time basis, as future budget projections will be guided by evidence of funds utilisation. Ahmed, who gave the insights during her opening remarks at the Open Government Partnership (OGP) 2020 Virtual Leaders Summit Roundtable on ‘Open Recovery, said: “This will ensure conversion of liquidity into the achievement of outputs and outcomes.”

She also stated that government will use “tax expenditure statement as a key reporting tool on the Nigerian tax system, providing estimated cost of the main tax expenditures in a year in terms of revenue forgone.” Aside from the budgetary reform, the minister disclosed that the federal government is developing a rapid response register (RRR) to quickly scale up the enrolment of poor and vulnerable citizens mainly in urban areas.

Ahmed said poor and vulnerable Nigerians are to potentially benefit from cash transfers to cushion the socio-economic impact of COVID-19 pandemic. She said: “Data for the register are being sourced through primary and secondary sources, including the Nigeria Inter-bank Settlement System (NIBSS) and the National Communication Commission (NCC) database on mobile phone users.” To ensure transparency and to mitigate risks of corruption, the finance minister said that ‘‘payments would be made directly to the accounts of the individuals using their Bank Verification Numbers (BVN).”

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