General of the Federation (AGF), Mr. Anamekwe Nwabuoku
Nigeria borrowing money to pay salaries – Ag. AGF
Acting Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF), Mr. Anamekwe Nwabuoku, has disclosed that the country now borrows money to pay monthly salaries of its workers across the federation.
Speaking during a retreat organised by the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (OAGF) for members of the Technical Sub-Committee on Cash Management (TSCM) in Abuja, Tuesday, the acting AGFalso confirmed an increase in recurrent expenditure of the Federal Government, which he explained followed the rising security challenges and the social needs of the populace.
According to Mr. Nwabuoku, the situation only shows ‘the difficult times’ the country is presently in.
“We have to borrow to augment payment of salaries and wages. This shows we are in very difficult times. Government income is highly challenged,” Nwabuoku said.
“The theme and objective of the retreat couldn’t have been better captioned, given the fiscal challenges at the moment. Records available indicate that due to dwindling revenues, the treasury had to resort to other sources to augment the payment of federal government public servants.
“There is an increase in government expenditure due to increasing security challenges and social needs of the citizenry,” added.
The acting AGF averred, however, that there should be deliberate efforts to revert the trend through fiscal discipline, economic diversification, export sector promotion and plunging revenue leakages, among others, to ensure revenue inflow.
“Now that these challenges stare us in the face, you are all expected at this gathering to come out with ideas that will push us through.
“Therefore, we must all, at this retreat, strive towards identifying the challenges to revenue generation and other means of enhancing inflow into federal government cash box; ensuring the cutting down the cost of governance in the most acceptable way and ensuring synergy amongst and within stakeholders in the sub-committee.”
