The Nigerian Presidency has approved five donor accounts to be used for COVID-19 donations from individuals and organisations to aid in the fight against the disease.
The accounts opened in five commercial banks form a part of the Single Treasury Account arrangements with the banks.
According to Henshaw Ogubike, Director of information and Press, office of the Accountant General of the Federation said the banks were Zenith, Access Bank, UBA, GT Bank and First Bank.
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He said the accounts will accommodate all public funds dedicated to fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, including fiscal packages and corporate and individual donations towards stemming the pandemic and cushioning it’s economic effects on Nigerians.
The new arrangement will also accommodate donations under the Private Sector Coalition Against COVID-19.
“In accordance with citizens expectations, government is committed to managing these funds with the highest sense of transparency and integrity.
“This framework is therefore designed to articulate the measures put in place by government for the transparent and accountable management of COVID-19 Donor Funds as an expression of its commitment towards bridging the trust gap.
“The TSA Sub Account in commercial banks are to be used for the purposes of receiving COVID-19 donations only. On no account shall any other fund of Federal Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDA) be deposited into the accounts or any other account in commercial banks.
“All other government accounts are to be maintained at the CBN in line with the Presidential directive on TSA, the TSA Guidelines and related extant Circulars.
“And all accounts with commercial banks are to be linked with the TSA at CBN to provide a single consolidated view of aggregate government cash balances.
“This will provide a single window for real time access to details of receipts and payments across all commercial bank accounts. In the absence of a ready tool to accomplish this requirement, the current CBN Payment gateway may be deployed,” Mr. Henshaw explained.
The director further explained that all the funds collected in these accounts will be transferred to the Federal Sub-Recurrent account with the CBN within 24 hours. Failure to do this would amount to a violation of the presidential directive on TSA as well as it’s attendant sanctions.
The disbursement of these funds also has to be with the approval of the National Assembly.
“Funds are to be appropriated directly to participating MDA and spending units like Ministry of Health, Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Nigerian Centre for Disease Control, among others rather than to an intermediary agency like the
Presidential Task Force (PTF).
“Administrative cost of the PTF shall be appropriated separately to the PTF Secretariat. The advantage is that the respective spending units and their Accounting Officers take full responsibility for funds appropriated to them and likely bottlenecks at the PTF are eliminated.
“Furthermore, transparency is enhanced when funds are spread to more MDA than when a huge amount is put under the control of a single entity.
“Given that there is a national emergency to which everyone including National Assembly is invested in addressing, there is no doubt that legislature will be willing to fast track its passage.
“This will bind all spending units to the Appropriation Act and, in fact, provide the greatest measure of credibility and transparency to the management of the donation.
“To ensure equity and transparency in fund allocation, the Minister of Finance may work with the PTF to determine the needs of participating MDA such as Health, Humanitarian Affairs, NCDC among others.
“Affected MDAs shall present details of their needs together with estimated cost. This will form the basis for allocation of funds and enables post expenditure reporting and audit. Funds are to be transferred to TSA Sub Accounts of spending units based on approved allocations,” he added.