She made this statement during the educational conference and 50th-anniversary celebration of the West African Insurance Companies Association in Lagos State, Nigeria.

The conference centered around the theme of “Re-positioning the insurance industry in West Africa for global competitiveness.”

In her address, Dr. Ahmed expressed optimism about a new era driven by technological advancements and a positive shift in focus.

She encouraged the delegates to deliberate and propose strategies for repositioning the insurance industry in West Africa to compete on a global scale.

Dr. Ahmed also highlighted the objectives of the African Continental Free Trade Area, which aimed to boost intra-African trade, facilitate the movement of people, deepen economic integration and prosperity on the continent, and strengthen Africa’s position in global trade negotiations by fostering a unified voice and policy framework.

She emphasized the importance of establishing a comprehensive insurance database to gain a holistic understanding of the industry’s operations in the sub-region.

Mr. Eddie Efekoha, the Vice President of WAICA (West African Insurance Companies Association), noted that WAICA serves as the umbrella association for insurance, reinsurance, and insurance broking companies in West Africa.

He highlighted WAICA’s role in facilitating knowledge enrichment, business information sharing, and networking among insurance professionals in the sub-region.

Mr. Efekoha stated that the conference aimed to address the rating of insurance companies in West Africa to enhance their global competitiveness.

Recognizing insurance as a global business, he explained that the chosen theme and carefully selected resource persons would provide diverse perspectives and insights on the issue.

Meanwhile, the government said the harsh realities faced by citizens due to the introduction of the new naira notes by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, is a necessary price to pay for the long-term health of the economy.

The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed stated this on Thursday when fielding questions from State House correspondents when she was featured at the 65th session of the State House Ministerial Briefing organised by the Presidential Communications Team at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Ahmed said President Mohammadu Buhari is not happy that the citizens are suffering because of the implementation of the naira redesign but was convinced that the policy will at the long run be beneficial to the economy.

According to her, the current hardships, though temporal, are required to stifle corruption and gradually transition into a cashless economy.

She said that one of the positive aspect of the policy is that a lot of money have been mopped up.

Recall that in November last year, the CBN had announced that it will redesign the N200, N500 and N1000 notes of the naira.

The nation’s apex bank gave January 31, 2023 as the deadline for the populace to return all old notes to commercial banks after which they will cease to be Legal Tender.

The decision generated a lot of controversy which necessitated the meeting between President Buhari and the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele in Daura on Sunday, January 29 where the later after the meeting announced a 10-day extension from January 31 to February 10, 2023.

The new dates also include a grace period of seven days (February 10-February 17, 2023) when Nigerians could return old notes to the CBN.

Speaking in Daura on Saturday, January 28, the President had argued that the FG’s currency swap is not meant to target innocent citizens but corrupt persons and terror financiers hoarding illicit monies.

He also assured Nigerians that the government will ensure that they and their businesses will face no harm from disruptions caused to the entire supply chain arising from the currency swap.

However, the scarcity of the new naira notes has become a thing of concern to many Nigerians, who cannot lay their hands on either the new notes or the old ones.

Ahmed, who made this statement on Thursday at a two-day Project Lighthouse sensitization training organized for ICT and Account Staff in federal ministries, departments, and agencies throughout the North Central Zone in Minna, claimed the debt is due by more than 5,000 businesses and individuals.

The minister, who was represented by Victor Omata, Director of Special Projects in the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget, and National Planning, stated that these debts are owed to debtors who are dispersed over 19 ministries, departments, and organizations.

She stated that companies and individuals owing the Federal Government agencies have refused to honour their obligations.

He cited the lack of visibility of these transactions, poor information sharing, and enforcement as reasons why these revenue loopholes remain.

“The Ministry through the consolidation efforts of the Debt Analytics and Reporting Application has been able to aggregate monumental debts of approximately N5.2 trillion. These debts came to the spotlight from data aggregated from over 5,000+ debtors across ten Ministries, Departments, and Agencies.  The debt aggregation effort is still ongoing.

“These debts are in the form of debt liabilities to the Federal Inland Revenue Service; refunds to the government by companies who failed to deliver on projects for which payment had been effected, unpaid credit facilities granted to both corporate entities and individuals by the Bank of Industry and Bank of Agriculture; judgment debt in favour of Government, debts owed Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate by Insurance Companies among others.”

He stated that the Project Lighthouse initiative has enabled the aggregation of relevant economic and financial information from multiple agencies that hitherto did not share data.

Omata explained that the Project lighthouse project which is one of the portfolio projects under the Strategic Revenue Growth Initiative is aimed at improving Federal Government revenues by targeting and increasing revenues from non-oil revenue sources.

“An important part of our policies and strategies is to leverage big data technology to help block revenue loopholes, recover debts, identify new revenue opportunities, optimize existing revenue streams, especially non-oil revenue as well as improve fiscal transparency,” he stated.

He called on government MDAs to cooperate and provide quality and relevant information which is debt-related to populate the platform as it would improve the economic base of the country adding that the project would soon be institutionalised.

The Secretary to the Niger State government, Ibrahim Matane, said that Project Lighthouse is a laudable initiative by the Federal Government as he expressed dismay over the quantum of debts owed by individuals and companies even at the local level.

He said that the project would cut excess and retrieve the debts owed which would help the government to use the money for other projects.

“It is time we focus on the money owed to the government. There is a pile of debts that contractors are owing the Federal Government and we are not paying attention to it. There are trillions of naira stacked up as debts, if these can be recovered, it would be a huge financial relief to the government.”

Addressing reporters after the Federal Executive Council meeting yesterday, December 14, Ahmed noted that the existing whistle-blowing policy launched on December 21, 2016, which provides legal cover for individuals who voluntarily expose acts of fraud, bribery, looted government funds and assets, financial misconduct and other forms of corruption and also rewards them with 2.5 – 5 per cent of the funds recovered by the Nigerian government, was losing momentum.

Ahmed told reporters that the Council approved the draft bill to strengthen the fight against corruption and protect whistleblowers that provide helpful information to the FG.

She said; “The Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning presented several memos today. The first is the draft whistleblower bill for 2022. This memo has been reviewed by the Council and approved with a provision to ensure alignment with the Evidence Act.

“The purpose of operationalising and putting in place a whistleblower bill is to strengthen the fight against corruption and to enable protection for whistleblowers that provide information for use by the government.

“As you know, since 2016, the Council has approved the setting up the Presidential Initiative of Continuous Audit. PICA has been working in partnership with EFCC, ICPC, DSS, and NFIU and the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation.

“We noticed that the whistleblower policy response has lost momentum. We embarked on engagement in the six geo-political zones, and one of the main outcomes we found is that people are concerned about their safety due to providing information. So, this bill is critical to ensure the effectiveness of the retention of the whistle policy.”

Ahmed said this on Tuesday in Abuja during a press conference to mark the end of the 28th National Economic Summit.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that fuel subsidy gulped N2.565tn between January and August 2022.

Also, in the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework, the Federal Government proposed to spend N3.3tn on fuel subsidy between January and June 2023.

According to Ahmed, removal of fuel subsidy is part of the FG’s medium-term plan in the budget.

She, however, said that the challenge was how to go about removing the subsidy.

“First, we have to engage. We have already engaged with the states and the public before it was approved as part of the medium-term plan.We have to do it by systematically informing the citizens about the size and the quantum of the fuel subsidy.

We also have to educate them about the opportunity cost of what we are unable to do because of the fuel subsidy,” she said.

According to the minister, the fuel subsidy, in addition to budget deficit, is putting enormous pressure on the “fiscals”.

“It is not money that we have; it is money that we have to borrow to maintain the fuel subsidy.

“Some countries introduced subsidy during the COVID-19, and because of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, but they are using their money to fund such subsidy.

“In our case, we are borrowing to pay the subsidy; that is double jeopardy. It is something that has to stop

“We are glad that majority of people in decision-making positions, including the political parties, have agreed that subsidy is not sustainable. ”The plan is, by June 2023, we must have completely exited subsidy, and it has to be a gradual process,” she said.

According to her, this will start with the implementation of a percent excise duty tax on all voice calls, SMS, and data services.

This was contained in a statement from the minister’s Special Adviser, Media & Communications, Yunusa Tanko Abdullahi.

This is “in addition to the existing 7.5 percent Value Added Tax (VAT), paid for goods and services across all sectors of the economy.”

“The government made the disclosure on five percent excise duty during a stakeholders’ meeting, organised by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the telecoms industry regulator.

“At that meeting, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, Honourable Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, who was represented by the Assistant Director, Tax Policy, Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Musa Umar, noted: ‘The five percent excise duty has been in the Finance Act 2020, but has never been implemented. Henceforth, the five percent excise duty will be collected by telecom operators and payment made to the federal government on a monthly basis, on or before 21st of every month.”

The Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, had on Thursday released the four-month fiscal report of the economy during a public consultation on the 2023-2025 Medium Term Expenditure Framework/FSP.

“Crude oil production challenges and PMS subsidy deductions by NNPC constitute significant threat to the achievement of our revenue growth targets, as seen in the 2022 Performance up to April,” Ahmed said.

“Bold, decisive and urgent action is urgently required to address revenue underperformance and expenditure efficiency at national & sub-national levels,” she noted.

Economists and petroleum experts projected that Nigerians, state govts and the economy would experience tougher days ahead going by the numbers.

The gross oil and gas federation revenue for the first four months of 2022 failed to meet the expected target, falling from N3.12 trillion to N1.23 trillion, representing a 39 per cent performance, according to the Overview of 2022 Fiscal Outcomes and Update on 2022 Federation Revenue Performance presented by the finance minister.

Ahmed said the subsidy projection was based on business-as-usual or reform scenarios, noting that the first scenario assumed that subsidy would be retained and fully provided for.

The second scenario, she said, assumed that subsidy would remain up till mid-2023 based on the 18-month extension earlier announced, but only N3.36 trillion would be spent.

Both scenarios, however, contained opportunity costs in relation to net accretion to the federation account and deficit, she noted.

She said despite higher oil prices, oil revenue underperformed due to significant oil production shortfalls arising from oil production shut-ins resulting from pipeline vandalism and crude oil theft; and high petrol subsidy cost due to higher landing costs of imported products.

She further said that the amount available for distribution from the Federation Account was N1.52 trillion within the first four months of the year.

Of this amount, she said, the Federal Government received N802.50 billion, while  states and local governments got N407.04 billion and N313.81 billion respectively.

“Federal, State and Local governments received N107.67 billion, N358.90 billion and N251.23 billion respectively from the VAT Pool Account.”

She said as of April 2022, FGN’s retained revenue was only N1.63 trillion, 49 per cent of the prorata target of N3.32  trillion.

She said the Customs collections (made up of import duties, excise and fees, as well as federation account special levies) trailed target by N76.77 billion (25.42 per cent).

“In the MTEF, real GDP growth is projected at 3.75% in 2023, from a revised projection of 3.55% for 2022. Growth is expected to moderate to 3.30% in 2024 before picking up to 3.46% in 2025,” she said.

On the other hand, inflation rate is projected to average 17.16 per cent in 2023, up from the revised average of 16.11 per cent for 2022, she said.

“Upward pressure on prices is expected to be driven by the current and lag effect of the global price surge due to the Russian-Ukraine war, domestic insecurity, rising costs of imports, exchange rate depreciation, as well as other supply-side constraints.”

She said overall, fiscal risks were somewhat elevated, following weaker-than-expected domestic economic performance and structural issues in the domestic economy.

Ahmed noted that revenue generation remained the major fiscal constraint of the Federation, stressing that the systemic resource mobilisation problem had been compounded by recent economic recessions.

Director-General of Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Chinyere Almona, in a recent statement, said Nigeria must identify corporate, physical, intangible, human assets, determine their worth, and make plans to repurpose or redevelop idle ones.

Almona stressed the need to break government monopoly in the infrastructure sector (railway, pipelines, power transmission) in order to attract investors to commit equity funds into them.

The Minister of Finance, Budget, and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, disclosed this on Monday during the launch of the Project Lighthouse Debt Analytics and Reporting platform in Abuja.

According to her, government had in the past 18 months recovered N53.8bn out of the N5.2tn owed 10 ministries, departments and agencies.

She credited the project lighthouse and the collaborative efforts of the Office of the Account General for the discovery and recovery of the outstanding debts

Ahmed noted that in a bid to optimise revenue, the ministry had in 2017 introduced the ‘Project Lighthouse’ to mine data from multiple sources to support the implementation of the Voluntary Assets and Income Declaration Scheme.

According to her, the project seeks to, among other things, address issues surrounding the tracking and implementation of government policies, initiatives, programmes and mandates.

She said, “A perfunctory review of perceived significant leakages in government led the FMFBNP to issue a directive on September 26, 2019, to all government agencies in a bid to aggregate all government debts across all Ministries, Departments and Agencies, with a view to having a single window on the credit profile of the government.

“Sequel to the issuance of the finance circular, the ministry through the consolidation efforts of the project, has been able to aggregate monumental debts of approximately N5.2trn.

“These debts came to the spotlight from data aggregated from over 5,000 debtors across 10 Ministries, Departments and Agencies.

“Working in collaboration with the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, we have been able to recover the sum of N53.5bn within the last 12-18 months, through the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System as a recovery touchpoint.

“However, to consolidate on the current effort of this project, a debt recovery application has been built to be monitored by the new Debt Recovery Unit.”

The list of poor Nigerians on the Federal Government’s National Social Register had surpassed 42 million and may hit 43 million by December. This implies that the figure to be spent on the subsidy palliative may hit N2.58tn in one year.

Yunusa Abdullahi, the Media Adviser to the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, referred to a statement by his principal after the Federal Executive Council meeting on Wednesday.

In the statement, Ahmed noted that the funding would come from FAAC allocations. FAAC which is headed by the Minister of Finance comprises Commissioners of Finance from the 36 states, representatives of revenue-generating agencies such as the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, Federal Inland Revenue Service, Department of Petroleum Resources, Central Bank of Nigeria, Nigeria Customs Service among others.

These revenue-generating agencies are expected to remit a specified amount of their revenue to the Federation Account which will be distributed among the three tiers of government.

Ahmed, however, noted that negotiation was still ongoing.

“So these are things that we are still in the negotiation because it’s still money that would have to come from the Federation Account. So everybody that is a member of FAAC will have to agree on the numbers.”

The Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, Mele Kyari, had on Tuesday announced at a World Bank event in Abuja that the subsidy on petrol was not sustainable.

He said the Federal Government would in 2022 remove the petrol subsidy paving the way for the sale of the product for between N320 and N340 per litre.

Also at the World Bank event, the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning said the subsidy was not benefitting the poor.

According to her, to cushion the effect of fuel subsidy removal, the Federal Government will give a transport grant of N5,000 each to between 30 million and 40 million poor Nigerians.

Speaking at a panel session during the 27th Nigerian Economic Summit (NES#27) in Abuja on Monday, October 26, the Minister announced that the complete deregulation of the downstream oil and gas sector will start by July 2022.

Ahmed said, “In our 2022 budget, we only factored in subsidy for the first half of the year; the second half of the year, we are looking at complete deregulation of the sector, saving foreign exchange and potentially earning more from the oil and gas industry.”