Lagos saves N5.9bn through Treasury Single Account - Commissioner

The Lagos State Government on Wednesday said it had saved N5.990 billion as revenue accruals since the policy of Treasury Single Account (TSA) was introduced in the state.

Its Commissioner for Finance, Mr Mustapha Akinkunmi, said this at the state’s Ministerial briefing in Ikeja.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the policy was introduced by the state government on Sept. 1, 2015.

The Commissioner said the implementation of the TSA in the state had greatly enhanced transparency and efficiency.

He said it had also increased IGR through seamless revenue generation and collection as well as improved cash management in the state.

Akinkunmi said the government had been able to save the sum of N3.8 billion monthly which had been applied continually for capital projects.

“These strides could only have been possible by the present administration because of its ability to successfully re-engineer the state’s outstanding internal loans to reduce burden on IGR,” Akinkunmi said.

He also said that part of the achievements and developments recorded included ongoing reforms in public financial management.

“Lagos continues to enjoy the support of multilateral agencies, especially the World Bank.

“As a reflection of its strong track record of public finance management and administrative reforms, the state successfully drew down the third and final tranche of the World Bank DPO facility (DPO III) in April this year, worth $200m,” he said.

Akinkunmi said Lagos had restructured its outstanding bonds from bullet payment to amortising payment to reduce debt servicing resulting in huge savings.

He said through this initiative, the state had achieved savings of over N500 million in monthly contributions to Consolidated Debt Service Account and over N40 billion saved in interest payments over the lifetime of the instruments.

Akinkunmi said that the state won virtually unanimous approval for restructuring at the Bondholders’ Extraordinary General Meeting which showed the continued strong relationship between Lagos and the capital market. He said that this was an affirmation of continued confidence in the strength of the state’s creditworthiness.