As a result of the enforcement of the Treasury Single Account (TSA), Federal Government deposits overtook that of banks for the third consecutive year at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Records from the CBN obtained by Daily Trust indicate that the total deposits with the CBN in 2017 amounted to N13.17 trillion. Of the total deposits, the shares of the Federal Government, banks and others were N6.01tn (45.7 per cent), N4.32tn (32.8 per cent) and N2.83tn (21.5 per cent), respectively.
Before the implementation of the TSA, banks’ deposits with the CBN mostly outgrew that of the Federal Government and other depositors.
In 2013, of the total deposits of N7.02tn at the CBN, the Federal Government deposit was N2.84tn (40.5 per cent); that of banks was N3.78tn (53.8 per cent) and other deposits of N396.7bn (5.7 per cent).
Also, in 2014, with the total deposits at the CBN N7.82tn, the shares of the Federal Government was N3.42tn (43.8 per cent), while that of banks was N4.17tn (53.2 per cent) and others were N231.8 billion (3.0 per cent).
In 2015, when the implementation of the TSA commenced, the trend changed with the Federal Government deposit at the CBN overshooting that of the banks. Out of the total deposits amounted to N9.35tn, the shares of the Federal Government deposit was N4.17tn or (44.6 per cent) the deposits by the banks shrank to N3.95tn (42.3 per cent) and other deposits also grew to N1.23tn (13.2 per cent).
In 2016, the total deposit with CBN grew to N12.37tn. Of the total deposits, the shares of the Federal Government continues to grow above that of banks with N5.21tn (42.1 per cent), the banks’ deposits was N3.65tn and other deposits were N3.50tn (28.3 per cent).
In 2017, the total deposits at the CBN amounted to N13.12tn. Of the total deposits, the shares of the Federal Government rose to N6.02tn (45.7 per cent), the banks deposited N4.32tn (32.8 per cent) and other deposits of N2.83tn (21.5 per cent).
Although the CBN report didn’t attribute the growth in the Federal Government deposit over that of the banks in recent years to the implementation of the TSA, an insider at the apex bank said it was obvious that the increase in the deposit of the Federal Government was due to the compliance by many banks to transfer most of the Federal Government revenues to the TSA.
The report says the development reflects an increase in the private sector and Federal Government deposits.
The non-compliance with the TSA policy by banks attracted several sanctions from the CBN worth billions of naira in the last two years.
As of third quarter of 2017, reports said the TSA account attracted over N7tn of government revenue. Before the policy commenced in September, 2015, there were more than 20,000 different accounts operated by various government agencies.
The Accountant General of the Federation (AGF), Ahmed Idris, said recently that the Federal Government, on a monthly basis, saves about N4.7bn that would have been spent on bank charges following its introduction of the TSA.
Mr. Idris also said the TSA as of third quarter of 2017 saved the government N108.1bn in account maintenance fees and other charges that would have been paid to banks for managing the accounts of MDAs.
He said the TSA had also eliminated the bad practice of operating several accounts by MDAs, thereby making it difficult for MDAs to divert public funds.
