Economy
Culture of Financial Impunity, Gradually Disappearing – FRC Chairman
Mr Victor Muruako, the Chairman of the Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC), says the culture of financial impunity is gradually becoming a thing of the past in the country.
Muruako made this known during a courtesy visit by the Nigerian Economics Students’ Association (NESA), University of Nigeria, Nsukka to the commission on Friday in Abuja.
He said the commission which was set up by the Fiscal Responsibility Act No.
31 of 2007 and started operations in 2009, had made alot of giant strides since its inception.“We have indeed made some landmark achievements from when we first began as a commission to where we are today.
“First and foremost, the culture of impunity is definitely disappearing and people are becoming more responsible.
“Although, corruption cannot just evaporate like that but you can see today that unlike before people are now being held accountable for whatever they do,” he said.
According to him, that in terms of budget implementation, the situation was far better than what was obtained before now.
“In the past Mr President would just release his budget speech few days to the end of the year and that is it.
“But now, with the Act and the commission as well as our engagements with the relevant stakeholders, including Ministry of Finance, Budget and Planning, we now have series of activities that will definitely lead to the national appropriation.
“Like the engagement with Civil Society Groups, the Medium term expenditure framework, the public hearings that are carried out and alot of other processes,” he said.
The chairman said that all these were definite steps towards planning in such a way that national budget was no longer the way it used to be which has led to gains.
“There must be absolute planning because if you fail to plan, then you have already planned to fail,” he said.
The FRC boss said that the commission had also made alot of giant strides in the aspect of revenue generation.
He explained that the ability of the commission to come up with the template for the calculation of operating surplus that was quite acceptable, had really yielded lots of revenue.
“Earnings to the consolidated revenue funds of the Federal Government have greatly increased. I can tell you that year upon year, we have continued to improve in that area.
“We have been working in collaboration with other stakeholders, particularly the National Assembly, the Office of the Budget of the Federation, Ministry of Finance and Accountant General of the Federation.
“So if you check the quantum. For the first time in 2021, the independent revenue of the Federal Government was able to hit the trillion mark.
“This can obviously be traced to alot of activities by the commission and we are still counting,” he said.
He said that there was need to continuously embark on youth sensitization to help in instilling the culture of fiscal discipline in the lives of young citizens.
“This is because one of the problems we identified with issues of instilling fiscal discipline in public officials is that it is very difficult to change adults as bad habits die very hard.
“So, we at the commission felt that one of our key strategies is to reach out to the leaders of tomorrow who are the public-officials-to-be.
“We want to catch them young while they are still at that early stage and we started this by setting up what we call ‘Army of Fiscal Responsibility Enthusiasts’, ” he said.
Godspromise Ngadi, the President of NESA, University of Nigeria, Nsukka said the association was privileged to have been impacted with so much knowledge about the activities of the commission.
“We have come to understand that one of the primary responsibility of the FRC is to harness the country’s resources, promote efficiency as well as dynamism and economic development.
“We have also been charged as fiscal responsibility enthusiasts to be disciples of fiscal accountability.
“We will cascade this message to our various institutions, homes and the society and ensure our impact is felt in the country at large,”he assured.(NAN)
By David Torough, Abuja
The Nigerian Economic Society (NES) has decried Nigeria’s socioeconomic dilemmas, including; low personal incomes, dysfunctional education, healthcare systems, unemployment, rising inflation, poverty, amidst other critical issues.
This was part of the communique at the end of the association’s 65th annual conference held recently in Abuja with the theme: Socioeconomic Development in Nigeria: Imperatives, Implications, and Impacts.
It emphasised that the factors greatly contribute to insecurity, food scarcity, energy poverty, widening social inequality as macroeconomic instability and called on relevant stakeholders to urgently address the challenges.
President Bola Tinubu who was represented by the Vice President, Kashim Shettima through
Dr. Tope Fasua, underscored the
pivotal role of economists in shaping national development.
Tinubu reiterated the importance of their role to make the citizens feel integral and empowered, knowing that their contributions were crucial to the country’s development.
He urged them to approach the economy optimistically, stressing that their work was crucial, and that improvement was
always possible.
In his remarks, Minister of Budget and National Planning, Atiku Bagudu underscored the importance of socioeconomic resilience amidst global economic challenges.
He acknowledged the relevance of the conference theme, stating its timeliness in addressing Nigeria’s development needs.
On his part, Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Olawale Edun who delivered the keynote address on “Leveraging Economic Reforms to Leapfrog Nigeria’s Socioeconomic Development,” underscored the potential benefits of these reforms and stressed the need to better utilise Nigeria’s human and natural resources to spur socio-economic development.
He predicted that while structural reforms might cause short-term economic shocks, they would stabilise the economy in the long run, bringing hope for a brighter future.
In his presentation, the NES President, Professor Adeola Adenikinju who presented “Nigeria’s Socioeconomic Challenges: Lessons from the Structural Adjustment Programmes,” recommended:
Instituting an economic governance structure for the country, designating
some Ministries as economic ministries that qualified economists and allied professionals
must staff, adopting macroeconomic models to analyse the impacts of policies and assess
alternative scenarios.
Adenikinju also recommended; implementing export-led growth strategies by promoting value-
added exports and incentives for export-oriented industries and infrastructure, prioritising agro-allied industries to boost socioeconomic outcomes, implementing targeted subsidies or social safety nets to cushion vulnerable populations against the immediate impacts of reforms, amongst others.
The 65th NES Conference provided significant insights into Nigeria’s socioeconomic
development challenges and proposed actionable recommendations.
Participants emphasised the need for visionary leadership, policy synergy, and a commitment to long-term economic transformation to ensure sustainable development for Nigeria.
By Tony Obiechina, Abuja
The Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) says it will henceforth issue Outline Business Case (OBC) Certificate of Compliance and the Full Business Case (FBC) Certificate of Compliance within seven days.This follows the charge by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to the Director General of the Commission, Dr Jobson Oseodion Ewalefoh “to accelerate investment in National Infrastructure through innovative mobilization of private-sector funding”.
President Tinubu also charged him to work assiduously to boost infrastructure development in Nigeria as part of the renewed hope agenda of the current administration.In view of the above, Dr Ewalefoh-led management team of the ICRC has streamlined the approval processes of the commission to issue its certificates of compliance within seven days. This will accelerate the turnaround time for approvals by the Commission.“In line with the charge of His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, and following his Renewed Hope Agenda, we have streamlined and updated our approval processes to issue either of the Outline Business Case Certificate of Compliance (OBC) and the Full Business Case Certificate of Compliance (FBC) to Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) that meet the requirements within seven days.“This is part of efforts by the current administration to accelerate infrastructure development, bridge the infrastructure gaps and stimulate the economy through investment of private sector funds in Public Private Partnership endeavours.“By streamlining our processes, the Commission is in no way foregoing any of its stringent approval steps or key requirements, therefore, only business cases that are viable, bankable, offer value for money and meet all other requirements will be approved.“The ICRC cannot do it alone, therefore I implore all chief executives of MDAs to match our momentum and align with this charge of Mr. President to accelerate Infrastructure development and ensure that PPP projects are not stalled at any point but delivered within record time.“The Commission is ready to partner and collaborate with all MDAs to actualize this,” he said.In a statement by Ifeanyi NwokoActing Head, Media and Publicity on Monday the ICRC DG in August rolled out a six-point policy direction which among others, focused on accelerating PPP processes, boosting inter-agency collaboration and ensuring innovative financing.The ICRC was established to regulate Public Private Partnership (PPP) endeavours of the Federal government aimed at addressing Nigeria’s physical infrastructure deficit which hampers economic development.
By Tony Obiechina, Abuja
The federal government in the second quarter of 2024 generated a total of N1.56 trillion from Value Added Tax. This is a 9.11 percent increase from the N1.43 trillion in Q1 2024.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics report, local payments recorded were N792.
58 billion, foreign VAT payments were N395. 74 billion, while import VAT contributed N372. 95 billion in Q2 2024.“On a quarter-on-quarter basis, human health and social work activities recorded the highest growth rate with 98.44%, followed by agriculture, forestry and fishing with 70.26%, and water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation activities with 59.
75%,” NBS reported.“On the other hand, activities of households as employers, undifferentiated goods and services producing activities of households for own use had the lowest growth rate with 46.84%, followed by Real estate activities with 42.59%.
“In terms of sectoral contributions, the top three largest shares in Q2 2024 were
manufacturing with 11.78%; information and communication with 9.02%; and Mining and quarrying with 8.79%.
“Nevertheless, activities of households as employers, undifferentiated goods- and services-producing activities of households for own use recorded the least share with 0.00%, followed by activities of extraterritorial organisations and bodies with 0.01%; and Water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation activities with and real estate services 0.04% each.
“However, on a year-on-year basis, VAT collections in Q2 2024 increased by 99.82% from Q2 2023.”
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