The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) on Tuesday commended the laudable achievements of the Federal Ministry of Finance in the last three and half years, saying it has blocked leakages and set the tone for improved revenue generation to finance government’s economic development agenda.
The 54th President of ICAN, Alhaji Razak Adeleke Jaiyeola, who stated this when he led executive members of the organisation on a courtesy call on the Minister of Finance, Mrs Zainab Ahmed in Abuja, added that the body seeks to collaborate with the Ministry to organize in-house training for staff of the Ministry.
Speaking earlier, the ICAN President particularly noted the giant strides of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) under the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration, which he said, has led to an all time high revenue generation of the sum of N5.3 trillion in 2018.
While expressing worries over delays in national budget, Alhaji Jaiyeola, commended the implementation of the TSA, he noted that many of the software that drive the process are not locally sourced, and called on the federal government to deploy more local content which he said will both preserve our hard-earned foreign exchange and create more jobs for the citizenry.
According to him, “Let me seize this auspicious opportunity to warmly commend the laudable achievements recorded by the Federal Ministry of Finance in the last three and half years. The Treasury Single Account (TSA), the Voluntary Assets and Income Declaration Scheme (VAIDS), Whistle-blower Policy, the establishment of the Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN) and the Efficiency Unit, the Collateral Registry under the Central Bank of Nigeria, the laudable reforms in the FIRS, are all initiatives driven by your ministry not only to set a credible governance tone at the top and raise the bar of credibility.”
He said, the drive of FIRS to recover N23 billion from 45,000 people who had more than N100 million in their accounts in 2018 through substitution of their bank account is highly commendable. The service has also won international awards with respect to its IT initiatives.
