FG begins audit of FIRS, Customs, Immigration

Aganga, at an interactive session with newsmen shortly after a policy dialogue with economic operators and critical stakeholders at the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) in Lagos, at the weekend, said the audit of their accounts is aimed at blocking all leakages.  

“We, in the ministry of finance, are looking into areas where we can diversifying, maximize and protect our revenue. In that regard there have been a number of initiatives. Already the president has asked for the audit of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). But, we have already started the process of auditing all the revenue generating entities. We are looking at all the leakages. Though this is big risk to us because oil is our biggest revenue and there is oil price volatility and we are looking at what we can do, using our financial instruments to edge our exposure”, he said .

He said the federal government is committed to job creation, ensuring stable power supply as well as creating enabling environment for business to strive in the country, adding that what will be greatest achievement for him is making the difference in the lives of average Nigerians.

“Every business require capital. We must source and allocate capital to critical areas of the economy, especially for small and grow businesses that have access to cheaper credit that will allow them to operate as profitable businesses.

“The second area is about job creation. It is about the quality and quantity. It is disappointing to note that the level of unemployment in the country based on the data provided by the National Bureau of Statistics is roughly about 90.7 per cent. It is even far worrisome that the largest affected by that level of unemployment is the group between the ages of 15 and 25 where you have an employment rate of about 49.9 per cent in urban region and 39.7 per cent in the rural areas. Some states are more affected than the others, which means that there is clearly disconnect between the growths of the economy over the last five, 10 years which is impressive when you compare it with other economies especially when we have global economy crisis. So this is telling us that there is potential socio problem therefore job creation is a priority for economy management”.

Aganga said if the country could get its productivity right, 60 per cent of the problem is solved. “If you get your productivity right, it will contribute at least 60 per cent to the economy of the GDP. What that means is that we are focusing on removing what we consider as barriers to productivity and that is electricity when you resolved the issue of power you have resolved so many issues . The president has promised that we will see improvement in power supply”, he said.

Another areas of focus, the minister said is multi-taxation system. According to him this would be dealt with this year adding that government is looking at the competitive which also affect the cost of doing business.

While gave a pass mark to the governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Sanusi Lamido Sanusi’ reform, Aganga said the whole essence of the reform is to have a stronger banking institution that is strong and capable enough to meet its social and economy responsibility that is able to play any major role like any banking institutions around the world.

“That is more far important yes decisions were made and there are some consequences the most important thing is to see to the growth of the sector. There are 14 strong banks operating in this countries. You have the likes of FCMB, Zenith, UBA, GTB just to mention a few. Our job as a government is to provide environment for them to operate effectively, to fulfill their obligations. We must not under rate the industry and make the international community believe that it is an un-ending problem. The problem is not limited to Nigeria we had it in UK, US and they dealt with the issues and they have move on from there. We must make sure that our banks have certainty in term of confidence to do what they need to do and we provide the environment”, he said.