Niger to adopt Treasury Single Account - Governor

Niger State governor, Alhaji Abubakar Sani Bello said the state is collaborating with the World Bank and Central Bank of Nigeria to have a treasury single account very soon.

Speaking to newsmen in New York, the venue of the United Nations General Assembly, Alhaji Bello said the number of accounts in the state currently have are too many, a situation he said is giving room for unethical conduct by some workers.

“Things went wrong. Our prayer is that people will cooperate with us and assist to correct all those things. It is true that for any corrections to take place, you must endure, before the solution comes in,” he said.

To the governor, it is unfortunate that at the time they are ready to commence work for the people, there is no money in the country. “Sometimes when we pay salaries of workers we end up with a N100 million or N200 million balance in the treasury. What do you expect us to do with such money? How can we provide water, quality education, healthcare system and even to pay contractors? These are the challenges we are facing. That is why we must ensure that all the leakages in the system have been blocked.”

Giving more light on the probe of the last administration in the state, Gov Bello said, “While it is a probe to some extent, it is also not a probe. Our administration is following due process and we are going to give everybody his right and we will not tolerate any injustice for anybody. “Part of the things we discovered so far is that we found that there are billions of naira withdrawn from the banks; cash not even transfer. The report submitted recently to me showed that about N70 billion cash was withdrawn without any reason.