‘Over 5,000 debtors owe FG N5.2trn’

A total of about 5,000 debtors currently owe the federal government an estimated N5.2 trillion debt, the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning has revealed.

The Director, Special Project of the ministry, Victor Omota, stated this on Monday in Kano during the North-West sensitization workshop on federal government debt recovery drive through the project Lighthouse Programme.

Omota, who was represented by his Deputy Director, Mohammed Saidu, said the debt was across 10 Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and that, “the Ministry through the consolidation efforts of the Debt Analytics & Reporting Application, has been able to aggregate monumental debts of approximately N5.2 trillion.”

He added that, “These debts are in the form of debt liabilities to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS); refunds to the government by companies who failed to deliver on projects for which payment had been effected, unpaid credit facilities granted to both corporate entities and individuals by the Bank of Industry (BOI) and Bank of Agriculture (BOA); judgment debt in favour of the government, and debts owed Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) by Insurance Companies etc.”

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He said the “Project Lighthouse”, which is one of the portfolio projects under the Strategic Revenue Growth Initiative (SRGI) has enabled the aggregation of relevant economic and financial information from multiple agencies which hitherto did not share data.

“Generally, revenue loopholes have been aided by poor information sharing and enforcement. Data from Project Lighthouse revealed that many companies and individuals who owe government agencies have refused to honour their obligations were still being paid especially through the government platforms such as GlFMIS and Treasury Single Account (TSA) due to lack of Visibility over these transactions,” he noted.