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Government has revealed that since the commencement of the Treasury Single Account (TSA) in September 2015, money deposit banks who had been riding on the deep pocket deposits of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) have lost not only the custody of government’s yearly national budget, but over 20,000 accounts.

The federal government had soaked away a total sum of N5.24tn and moved same to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), which is the constitutional government bank.

The Accountant General of the Federation, Ali Ahmed Idris, Tuesday in Abuja explained the development in his remarks at the opening session of a two day retreat on TSA.

The retreat designed to mark one year of TSA was attended by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal among other top government officials.

With theme; ‘One year anniversary of Treasury Single Account: Benefits, challenges and way forward,’ Idris said the TSA is a platform which was used by the government to unify all its accounts by ensuring that all monies belonging to the federal government are kept with the CBN.

The Accountant general revealed further that over 900 agencies of government had complied and the system is goo to go.

Analysts say the movement of the huge sums from banks created shocks to the extent some banks up till now are yet to recover from the take off of TSA as they are yet to remit all money belonging to some MDAs.

For example, Heritage Bank is still holding on to some fund belonging to the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA).

However, the CBN had brokered a repayment plan between NPA and the bank

The Accountant-General described the implementation of the TSA as one of the success stories in the management of public finances.

Idris noted that apart from blockages of leakages effected by TSA, the initiative has assisted the government to overcome the burden of indiscriminate borrowings by MDAs thus saving government a lot of bank charges associated with these borrowings.

Another merit of TSA revealed by Idris is the monthly saving of about N4.7bn being bank charges and COT.

According to the Accountant general, “The TSA journey started way back in April 2012. That journey could not see the light of the day as no significant gains were recorded largely due to the lack of political will.

“However, the issuance of TSA circular in August, 2015, coupled with the political will and enforcement, enabled us to achieve considerable progress on the TSA implementation.

“As at the 10th of February,2017, the total inflow of funds through the mop-up and direct debits by the Central Bank of Nigeria amounted to N5.24trn.

“We have successfully eliminated multiple banking arrangements, resulting into consolidation of over 20,000 bank accounts, which were spread over Deposit Money Banks across the country.

“This has further brought about transparency and effective tracking of government revenues.”