FG Recovers N57bn from 5,000 Debtors Nationwide

Gideon Arinze in Enugu

The Federal Ministry of Finance yesterday, said it has successfully recovered a total of N57 billion from over 5,000 debtors across more than 93 Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).

Director (Special Projects) at the Ministry, Aisha Omar, made this known yesterday, in Enugu during a sensitisation workshop for the South-east zone on the federal government’ debt recovery effort through Project Lighthouse Program.

Omar, who was represented by the Deputy Director, Special Project at the Ministry, Bridget Molokwu, said the recovered funds was part of a total of approximately N5.2 trillion aggregated debts.

She explained that the Ministry’s  initiated, “Project Lighthouse,” has enabled the aggregation of relevant economic and financial information from multiple agencies who hitherto did not share data.

“These debts came to the spotlight from data aggregated,” she said.

“The current administration remains committed to improving its revenues by targeting and increasing revenues from non-oil revenue sources and part of the strategies is to leverage big data technology to help block revenue loopholes, identify new revenue opportunities, optimise existing revenue streams especially non-oil revenue as well as improve fiscal transparency.”

She regretted that many companies and individuals, who owe government agencies, who had refused to honor their obligations were still being paid especially through the government platforms such as GIFMIS and Treasury Single Account (TSA) due to lack of visibility over these transactions.