Tinubu Empowers Wike To Spend Over 200bn Yearly IGR As FCTA ‘Pulls Out’ Of TSA

Tinubu Empowers Wike To Spend Over N200Bn Yearly IGR As FCTA ‘Pulls Out’ Of TSA

By Bayo Ola, Abuja

President Bola Tinubu has given his approval for the exclusion of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) led by Nyesom Wike from the Treasury Single Account (TSA), thereby granting the FCTA more control to use its Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) for project development.

Wike disclosed this during a press conference held in Abuja on Friday.

The TSA is a Federal Government initiative introduced in 2015 to enhance transparency and accountability in government finances.

It requires government revenue collection and expenditures to follow a unified process, channeled through the Consolidated Revenue Account (CRA) domiciled at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

During the media briefing, Wike also announced that President Tinubu has approved the establishment of a Civil Service Commission (CSC) and a dedicated Women Affairs Secretariat specifically for the FCTA.

This implies that civil servants can progress beyond the director level to become Permanent Secretaries.

Also, establishing a Women Affairs Secretariat in the FCTA will enable the ministry to address unique concerns and needs of women within the federal capital, said the minister.

Wike stated, “wrote a Memo to Mr President. I say, you have a renewed hope agenda; civil servants in FCT are suffering; they have lost hope. They are not committed to work. Why should I be working because, at the end of the day, I can’t get to the apex of my career? As such, we must implement that 2018 law as passed by the National Assembly.

“If there are challenges, of course, there is no law that is perfect. You can only know the challenges when you start implementing them.

“So, let’s implement, whatever the challenges are, then we can begin to talk of how we can amend it. I can tell you authoritatively that Mr President has given the approval for the establishment of the Civil Service Commission for the FCTA.

“What matters most is that our actions are guided by the principles of law, conscience, and the interests of all Nigerians, rather than the personal interests of myself, the FCT minister, or any other individual,” he said.

Last week, FCTA’s Mandate Secretary of the Economic Planning, Revenue Generation, and Public-Private Partnerships Secretariat, disclosed that the ministry has set a target of over N250 billion IGR.