The federal government has flagged off a new cash planning system with an awareness campaign on its operation and benefits.
The aim is to complement and reinforce the progress made in the implementation of Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS) and the Treasury Single Account (TSA).
The new system, tagged Bottom-up Cash Planning, is designed to enable the collection and aggregation of government cash needs through the individual spending units. It is a component of the overall government cash management arrangement designed to facilitate the optimal allocation and utilisation of government cash resources.
The central objective of cash management is to ensure that the government is able to fund its expenditures in a timely manner and meet its obligations as they fall due, a critical priority as the country confronts the challenges of lower oil revenues in the aftermath of the disruptions of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Addressing finance directors and other top staff from various MDAs on the imminent Go-Live of the project, the acting accountant-general of the federation on Tuesday, Mr Sylva Okolieaboh said the Bottom-Up Cash planning initiative will minimise the costs of holding cash balances while reducing risk (operational, credit and market risk) and adding flexibility to the ways in which the timing of government cash inflows and outflows can be matched.
Overall, the initiative will support and reinforce and other government financial policies, enable more certainty in budget execution and engender fiscal discipline.
Okolieaboh also highlighted the “reform friendliness” of President Muhammadu which, in his view, “has not received the credit it deserves” for providing the positive environment for the successful implementation of various financial management initiatives.
“Certainly, this would not have been possible without the supportive leadership of the minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning. More importantly, the reform friendliness of Mr. President since the early years this administration has not received the credit it deserves.
“It is on record that although TSA was in place before May 29, 2015, the Presidential directive of August 7, 2015 breathed life into it leading to its whole-of-government implementation. Furthermore, the Presidential assent to the Bottom-up Cash Planning Policy on 24th August 2022 cleared a major hurdle on the path to actualising the policy,” Okolieaboh said.
He also commended the supportive leadership of the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mr Zainab Ahmed for being an important factor in the successes recorded so far.
Describing the commencement of Cash Planning as “a defining moment”, Okolieaboh urged participants at the sensitisation event to embrace their duties and work hard for its success.
In his words: “We can only succeed if everyone of us does his own part. Indeed, the success of the bottom-up cash planning policy will rely heavily on your ability and willingness to play your own part. Being bottom-up, the process starts effectively with you. Under the direction of your respective Accounting Officers, your specific roles include: constitution of in-house Cash Management Committees; sending details of your focal persons to the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation; submission of your role players to be profiled on the GIFMIS platform; and using the full GIFMIS functionality from procurement to payment.”
