By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of Economy, Mr Wale Edun, has disclosed that the government was taking urgent steps to block revenue leakages, particularly at a time when earnings have declined.
Speaking recently at the Lagos Business School Breakfast Club, the Minister said the measures taken by the federal government include the adoption of digitisation and the elimination of inefficiencies among employees of the government.
According to him, these actions have resulted in a rise in the revenue received from the Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) of the federal government by 441.78 per cent or N681.45 billion to N835.70 billion in February 2024 from N154.25 billion in 2023.
“There is an increasing revenue contribution of MDAs and GOEs, growing from N154.25 billion in February 2023 to N835.70 billion in February 2024 through an automated two-times daily sweep of 50 per cent of MDAs and GOEs IGR since January 2, 2024,” the Minister said during his presentation at the event titled Reconstructing the Economy for Growth, Investment and Climate Resilience Development.
Speaking further, Mr Edun said, “We have set out a robust execution plan for a 78 per cent y-o-y increase in budgeted revenue in 2024, but implementing enhanced the government’s revenue assurance model is critical with a target budget deficit of 3.9 per cent of GDP from 6.1 per cent in 2023.
“We have taken prudent expenditure measures by minimising unnecessary redundancy, reducing leakages through digitisation and eliminating inefficiencies.
“There is also a revamped process for the commencement of 2024 capital expenditure payments for MDAs and GOEs, which is through direct payments to contractors while promoting a government-wide cost curtailment culture across all MDAs & GOEs.”